A Wish for the Scent of Jasmine
by Out of Books
Summary: Kaoru has always been a little unconventional for a woman in the Meiji Era of Japan. Follow the story of how she came to be that woman she is as we learn everything: from what drove such a strong, stubborn person to not originally chase after the man she loves, to, simply, why it is she can't cook. Story and original content designed to fit original manga canon exclusively.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: The following is a fan based story. All profits and ownership are for the creator.

This story is rated for a Mature audience due to graphic violence, adult themes, and sexual situations in later chapters. The audience has been warned and if offense occurs, at this point, this author does not care.

1st Revision Beta

Courteously, by Kingswallow

2nd Revision Beta

Courteously, by Scarred Sword Heart

Much appreciation to the both of you.

**Prologue**

It was a gift from her husband: a simple comb, but the material was pure ivory, and the craftsmanship was so detailed that the jasmine blossom it depicted looked as delicate as a real flower. It looked so lovely that she was certain it came from the Continent. Where he had gotten the money for it, she didn't know. Most of their income came from their son, Kenji, now. At their age, it wasn't that surprising. Fifty today, but with this comb she felt twenty again.

This feeling was further set in when she read the haiku with it. She giggled reading his sloppy handwriting. His arthritic hands had only made it worse.

'This one made a wish.

The scent of jasmine is mine.

Still so unworthy.'

What a horrid poem! It did make her reflect, though. Or maybe that was her age, again. She had only been seventeen the day she met him. That year was so crazy. It was hard for her to believe that it all had only been a year. That one year had held enough adventure for a lifetime, but it hadn't been her first adventure. It certainly wasn't her last.

Her husband referred to that year as the year he caught the scent of jasmine. Romantic to the end. She had never told him how, for her, it was the only year she didn't smell jasmine. There was no way to she could figure out a how to say it without causing him guilt, and worse, she never meant it to be a bad thing. She had her own affection for an angelic scent that had led her Kenshin to her: That magnificently sweet smell of white plum blossom.

"This unworthy one has finished breakfast," came the soothing voice from the other side of the shoji. "Whenever you are ready, you should come enjoy yourself. That you should."

"Sorry, I was just thinking."

"May this unworthy one ask of what?" The amusement in his voice was ever-present. He had left her birthday present on her clothing chest and was eager to note any reaction to it.

"The smell of angels," she said with a happy yet wistful sigh.

"Oro?"

She would let him know how much she appreciated his gift. She finished combing out her muted grey hair and pinned it up into the more elegant hairstyle she had recently been sporting. Her hair had thinned a little too much to keep with the ponytail of her youth, but it still looked nice in a braided little bun - even more so now with the new comb in it.

"Kenshin, do you know what it means when you smell jasmine?"

She stood, walked over to the shoji, and opened it.

Her husband was kneeling at the door, looking up at her with soft, lavender eyes, filled with quiet happiness. "In Hanakotoba, the jasmine flower symbolizes the best of kindness and grace. One who smells of jasmine is one who would befriend the lowliest of retches and inspire happiness with their grace. It is said that when you are loved by one who smells of jasmine, their love will follow you everywhere.

"This unworthy one remembers well how the smell of jasmine was ever-present when given love from sweet Kaoru."

He could still make her blush. She leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips before gently helping him up from his knees.

"You told me once how you first smelled jasmine when I loaned you my favourite indigo ribbon," she started as the couple made their way to the kitchen. "Did I ever tell you about when I first smelled jasmine?"

"This unworthy one believes you had said it was your mother's smell. That it was."

Of course, she had already told him. They were over thirty years married. He knew everything about her. Everything.


	2. A Promise Lost to Memory

Author's Note: Thank you, first and foremost, for all the lovely messages, comments, and reviews. The chapter would have been up sooner, but the site Story Manager was having server errors. I apologise for that. I also apologise to readers as, for some reason, the means I was using to divide the scenes in the chapter did not appear, and I can see how it may have made reading a little confusing. I'm very sorry.

1st Revision

Courteously, by Kingswallow

2nd Revision

Courteously, by Scarred Sword Heart

Many thanks to both of you.

**Chapter 1: A Promise Lost to Memory**

It was raining. Good: that meant father wouldn't notice her, or at least she hoped. Over the last month, Koshijirō had gotten it in his head that four was too old for her to be sharing a futon with her mother. Her father was right, but she wouldn't accept that. Why should she have to sleep alone?

He tried to discourage this behavior by making her go to bed an hour or so before they did, but that only resulted in her sitting in bed, awake, until they went to sleep. She peeked through the slightly-ajar shoji. Her father was lying down and seemed to be asleep. Riko wasn't though. Kaoru's mother was sitting up waiting for her.

"I knew all I had to do was wait," Riko chuckled softly. "Kaoru, darling, you know that your father wants you to sleep in your own room."

Kaoru crawled across the floor, praying that her mother wouldn't turn her away. "I hate my room," her whine barely above a whisper.

"Oh? Why?"

"It smells like a boy's room."

Riko arched her brow in question. "Really? It smells like sweat and mud?"

Kaoru smiled. She made it to the futon and scurried under the blankets at the foot. Tunneling her way until she reached her mother's pillow. "No. Boys only smell like that after they leave the dojo. They don't smell like anything before that."

Riko went to lay down and hugged her child to her. "Kaoru, darling, your room doesn't smell like anything because you don't spend any time in it." Riko listened for an objection from her husband. The young mother still preferred the idea of letting her child share the bed a little longer. She knew it was purely for selfish reasons, but Koshijirō had complained on the loss of intimacy Kaoru's presence caused and Riko knew she could at least spit his own selfishness back at him. Koshijirō resigned himself to turning pretending to be asleep into being asleep, hoping that his wife understood that he considered this the last time. Riko understood his wishes and so began to give the argument to cushion the rejection she would have to give Kaoru tomorrow. "Kaoru, how about tomorrow night I give you my pillow?" Kaoru looked up at her mother confusedly, but the explanation came quickly. "My pillow will smell like me. So, when you go to bed, you'll have my smell to fill your room until it smells like you."

"Okay, will you come and sing to me, too?" the child asked, trying to get as much as she could out of this deal.

"No, but I'll sing to you tonight and you'll learn the song. That way, you can sing it to yourself before you fall asleep," Riko explained.

Kaoru's eyes lit up and she snuggled close to her mother while listening intently. The song was sad, a Min'yo: a piece of Riko's life as a goze, a blind female musician. It was a life she had given up when she decided to marry. An unchasted or married goze was still too unseemly for the times, yet she did not regret it. The roads had become too dangerous with the rise in unrest. Koshijirō never treated her as handicapped and their daughter was so spirited that, to Riko, her beauty was worn on her sleeve.

Her Okinawan roots came through the songs she chose to sing, and with every song she promised herself that she would one day take Kaoru to see the beautiful island that she never could see.

Kaoru struggled to stay awake, but the labour of staying up so late and the warmth of her family gave weariness the weapons it needed to finally overcome her. When Riko's song was over, Koshijirō leaned to individually kiss the foreheads of his wife and child. He then took Kaoru from his wife to take her back to her own room.

"Koshijirō," Riko whimpered.

He knew what she wanted, but the unusually warm feeling of her forehead and the slight flemmy sound of her singing voice just now had confirmed what her earlier sniffling had made him suspect. "It'll be okay. When you feel better she can stay the whole night." He smiled at her, and though she couldn't see it, he knew that she could tell his expression.

Riko handed him her pillow. "Don't make me into a promise breaker."

Koshijirō readjusted Kaoru in his arms so that he could take the pillow. "I don't think you could break a promise if you tried."

Kaoru woke up the next morning in her room, but she was pleasantly surprised to find the smell of her mother still in the room. She turned her head and smothered her face in her pillow. The smell of jasmine blossoms.

* * *

Kaoru's could tell that her father had cooked breakfast this morning. It wasn't edible. Her mother wasn't a good cook. Her blindness and lack of a proper kitchen during her days of travelling had never allowed her much of an opportunity to cook for herself until she married. Riko's food was just plain, though; Koshijirō's was a sin against nature.

"Where's mama?" she whined, hoping her mother would come and save her from her father's food.

"Mama's feeling a little sick today, so leave her alone," Koshijirō's skin bristled a little bit, tasting his own cooking.

Kaoru crinkled her nose at the idea that she would have to choke down her breakfast, but she knew it would hurt his feelings to complain anymore. So, following his lead, she gobbled up as much food as she could, hoping the pace of her eating would be faster than the taste of her food.

"Kaoru, don't eat so fast or you'll get sick," Koshijirō scolded, completely ignoring the hypocrisy that he was already finished. Kaoru belched when finished and began chugging a cup of water to wash the taste from her mouth. Koshijirō sighed at his daughter's uncouth behavior and wondered when this tomboy phase of hers would end. 'Guess it can't be helped with all the boys that come through here to attend the dojo. I should see about finding out if there are any families with little girls for her to play with in the area,' he thought.

As he was lost in thought, Kaoru began picking up the dirty dishes. "Papa, after your class, can I go home with Toji to play?"

Koshijirō snapped back to reality and went to get the cleaning bucket for the dishes. Kaoru asked to go play with the seven year old boy every day, Masumoto Toji, fifth son of the Masumoto family, about half a kilometer east of the dojo. Koshijirō had never really much of a need to associate with them, but his father had been close with the family patriarch. Too many rumors circulated about ties to the local yakuza for Koshijirō's tastes. Still, brushing off the ties of friendship his late father had formed felt disrespectful, and Toji seemed to be a nice boy despite the rumors about the family… and fond of Kaoru in a very sweet way. "How about you invite Toji to stay here for lunch after his lesson? Then we'll go out to eat." This would also solve the problem of Riko being not well enough to cook for lunch.

"Okay!" Kaoru cheered as she dropped the dishes into the bucket. Thankfully, nothing broke.

When the dishes were clean, Koshijirō went into the dojo to practice until his students arrived. Kaoru loved to mimic him during his practice and he had given up discouraging it a long time ago. Kaoru had been attempting to swing a shinai before she attempted to walk. An actual shinai was still too long for her. So she just used a stick she found and Koshijirō had blunted to ends and wrapped it in leather straps to prevent any scrapes or splinters.

She loved doing it so much that he even considered giving her lessons, but all the current anti-western sentiment would remind him that a kimono was not good garb for a swordsman. Kaoru learning swordsmanship would be seen as him teaching her extremist views like western feminism. He could not afford to be branded as some sort of rebel. His lack of a son had kept many lords and rebels from asking for his personal assistance. Kaoru and Riko needed a man to protect them. He needed an heir to Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. That mindset had allowed him to stay home this long, but Koshijirō did worry about how much longer he would be allowed to use his family as a shield from his responsibility to his country. When Riko felt better he would speak with her about attempting for a son. 'She would like that idea,' he assured himself.

He practiced for about an hour before his first student arrived. He was a half an hour early.

"Master Kamiya!" an innocent seven year old called. Masumoto Toji: always early and never for class. "Little cutie!" Toji's pet name for Kaoru. "Look at what I found!" Kaoru stopped mimicking her father to examine the surprise the older child had brought. Toji opened his hands he revealed a tiny green frog. "I found him by my window!"

Kaoru's eyes widened at seeing the little creature. Unfortunately, Toji couldn't hold onto it as it leapt out of his hands and on to Kaoru's head. She took in a sharp breath. Koshijirō braced himself for the scream.

"It's so cute!" Kaoru squealed. Koshijirō faltered in his footing. "Toji! I love him!" she giggled as the little creature leapt off her head. "Hey, come back!"

Koshijirō sighed again, contemplating when this tomboy phase would end. "Toji!"

The boy stiffened his posture and bowed. "Yes sir!"

"If you're able to catch frogs, then you must have improved that kata I taught you two months ago," Koshijirō scolded as he finished his own kata. The boy didn't have to answer him. The blue tarnish of not breathing from panic on Toji's face told Koshijirō everything. The boy had forgotten the kata again. He was a sweet boy, but if the kenjutsu master did not see the boy regularly practice he would swear that he wasn't even trying. It made Koshijirō worry. All the unrest was not something to be taken lightly; shogunate in war had conscripted dojo students to pad their armies throughout history. "You forgot it again, didn't you?" Koshijirō glanced out of the corner of his eye to his laughing child as she continued to chase the frog. He sighed, turning his gaze back to Toji.

"First, take three steps in hasso." He waited for the boy to lift his shinai vertically while baring the hilt close to the right side of his inner chest. Toji assumed the stance, though his shinai was crooked. "What's next?"

"Um, a shomen?" Toji guessed, walking through the kata and stopping after making the horizontal strike.

"Good, then?"

"Shidachi from gedan," Toji spoke softly as he pivoted to the left.

"Right, Toji. To the right!"

"Sorry!" Toji quickly corrected himself. The rest of his form remained shaky, but there were signs that some muscle memory was making a few of the old corrections. He really was trying, and with his perseverance there was hope, but Toji was far from a prodigy. Toji finished and stiffly bowed to his master. "How was that, sir?"

"You keep cording your muscles like that and you'll strain yourself. Firm, not stiff," Koshijirō advised. The look on Toji's face said that the boy was failing to grasp the difference. Koshijirō gestured the boy into the dojo to give him further instruction. "Kaoru!"

"Yes?" Kaoru ran up to her father with a fresh dirt stain on her kimono. Most likely from diving after the frog.

Koshijirō sighed, knowing he'd have to wash that out. "After class we'll have a bath. Go put out a change of clothes for us."

"Yes sir!" Kaoru cheerfully bowed as if she were one of his students.

Koshijirō had to smile. "Go check on your mother after that. If she's awake and well she can join us, but don't wake her if she isn't."

"Alright!" Kaoru went running into the house singing tunelessly. She was practicing the min'yo her mother had charged her to learn. Such a dutiful child.

Kaoru peeked into her mother's room. Riko was sitting on a cushion braiding her hair. Kaoru let out a giddy little squeak, alerting her mother to her presence. "Did you sleep well, Kaoru my darling?"

Kaoru nodded as she crawled over to Riko. "Your pillow smells pretty."

"Do you know why?"

Kaoru furrowed her brow in thought. "Because," she paused for a moment, "You're so pretty?"

Riko laughed, "So I'm told, but that's not why." She reached out to easily find the cane she swung in front of her to find her way. "It's because I ask jasmine flowers everyday to tell people that I love them."

Kaoru giggled at the silly thought of flowers talking. Then she contemplated something else. "So, if I want to tell Toji that I love him I just have to smell like jasmine flowers around him?"

"Kaoru, darling, what has your father told you about that?"

Kaoru's face soured. "That I'm too little to know that I love Toji." She then looked up at her mother defiantly. "But I'm not! I've known Toji forever, and I don't have to be older to know that I'm going to marry him!"

Riko mussed her daughter's hair. "So, you're old enough to know who your husband is going to be but not old enough to sleep on your own?" Kaoru blushed at her own actions being thrown back at her. She didn't know what else to say so she went to her parents' clothing chest to retrieve a change of clothing for after the bath. "Kaoru, darling, Toji is a very nice boy, but your father is wise man. He just doesn't want to see you hurt. Be Toji's friend first and worry about finding happiness by yourself. If you depend too much on others to make you happy, then when sad times do come you won't be strong enough to handle them."

Riko's words of wisdom went over Kaoru's head. 'But, if I surround myself with people I love, then I will never be sad.' The four year old thought herself wise beyond her years and smiled. "We're taking a bath after Papa's class then going out to eat! I want eel!"

"Are we?" Riko giggled.

* * *

Toji blushed fiercely staring at his own nude lap in the bath water. He couldn't figure out why. He had bathed with the Kamiya family since Kaoru was born. This was nothing new. Maybe it had to do with something his oldest brother, Yoshirou, had mentioned. Something about how the public bathhouses were disgraceful. Since when, though? Yoshirou had recently decided that he was going to go to America and ever since that decision it felt like his opinion had changed about everything. Like how only lechers and whores bathed in front of other people. Particularly if such people were to bath before others that were not of their gender.

The bathhouse at Kamiya dojo was hardly public. In fact, he had never been in a public one and, as far as he knew, neither had the Kamiya's. Still, there he sat. Everything was perfectly innocent. The two adults were more concerned about Kaoru splashing too much water outside the tub than anything else.

Riko let out sneeze. She had been doing that allot today. Koshijirō placed his palm on her forehead out of concern, which made Kaoru do the same though her small hand would more cover a blind eye than actually reach the forehead. "Would you both stop that? I said that I was fine." Nothing new. Yet, why was Toji so uncomfortable today?

Riko sensed the boy's unease and cheerfully passed Kaoru off to her husband. She leaned forward and despite her blindness Riko's hand found Toji's forehead easily. "You're feeling a little feverish, Toji. Are you all right?"

Toji nodded his head slowly. "Mrs. Kamiya, ma'am," he started as he glanced over to Kaoru his face flushed more. Again, he had a hard time discerning the reason exactly why. "Do you think… Kaoru, will look like you when she's grown up?"

A silence fell over the bathroom. It was only a few seconds, but to Toji, it felt like an eternity. That uncomfortable silence was preferable to what came next. Little Kaoru had taken offense to Toji being so insensitive to her mother's blindness and kicked her foot harshly in his most sensitive of places. "Jerk! You know Mama can't answer that question!"

Toji would've drowned sinking painfully into the water had Koshijirō not picked him up by the back of his neck. When Toji's mind was able to contemplate his surroundings again he found himself sitting outside the tub with a towel thrown over his shoulders to dry with. He was facing away from the women, and Koshijirō was drying himself off. The heavy air told Toji that he was in trouble. 'Stupid!' he thought. 'Riko's been blind since birth. She doesn't know what she looks like herself! Let alone what Kaoru looks like! How could I forget that?' Toji was still a little breathless from the assault but he managed to mutter out a, "Sorry sir."

"I met my wife when she was nineteen. I have no base to contrast and compare from the two other than what both of us see now. To me, Kaoru gets almost all of appearance from her beautiful mother: the color of hair and eyes, the shape of the face and nose-"

Riko interrupted him, "But beauty comes from inside too. Kaoru has her father's spirit and I am sure that will shape her appearance away from mine as she grows."

Koshijirō smiled slightly. "I both pray and dread the idea that Kaoru will be as beautiful as her mother. So, as a father, all I can do is make sure that those who think her beautiful also respect her," Koshijirō turned gentle eyes on to Toji. "Do you respect my wife and daughter, Toji?"

Toji swallowed and nodded seriously, "Yes sir!"

Koshijirō sighed deeply as he started to dress himself. He had not expected such adolescent stirring would come at such an early age for the boy. He, himself, hadn't starting noticing women in such a way until he was about ten. He didn't like the thought of having to now have to talk about this event with Toji's own father. The family would take it to mean it was time to start talking marriage arrangements. Greedy bastards.

Koshijirō still bore the sweet memory of Toji asking if Kaoru was an angel on the day she was born. A memory forever tarnished by his father, Gendo, asking what her dowry was going to be. Kaoru was his little girl and he didn't like the idea of giving her away to any family. "Get dressed, Toji," he ordered. His wife let out a soft giggle. She would never be so disrespectful to subvert his authority in front of his own student, but he knew it was her way of telling him the he was over-reacting. 'No, I'm not,' he thought.

* * *

"There are European warships docked in Hyogo! How can we stand for this?" demanded a voice of a demonstration group calling for fighters. The group had drawn quite the crowd. "This is nothing short of an invasion!"

Riko pulled the children close to her. The demonstrators were blocking the road. Koshijirō cursed under his breath. He had not anticipated such open calls to arms. He did his best to maneuver through the crowd; however, the crowd was comprised of many angry men with many varying opinion. The family was shoved more than once and many glints of light flashed from swords being loosened from their scabbards. Kaoru was covering her ears, trying to drown out the noise while giving her father tearful eyes of a scared child trying to be brave. Toji had his hand on the shinai strapped to his back, doing his best to intimidate the crowd away from the women while his own knees knocked.

Koshijirō was about to suggest they returned home, but though his wife's face was weary it was still defiant.

Every man in the crowd seemed to be an impassioned samurai, yakuza, or ronin looking for a fight. Koshijirō kept his hand poised to draw his bokken but prayed he didn't have to. His own passionate nature to drive away such violent and murderous kenki as he felt now had to be curbed. Any outburst on his part would endanger his charges.

Unfortunately, his own prestige as a dojo master betrayed him.

"You there! You are the master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu!" the demonstrator called out to him, "I have heard of your kenjutsu! The sword that protects! Will you not raise your sword to protect our country from these foreign barbarians!"

He was caught. Honor demanded he at least give an honest answer to the man. Koshijirō glanced over to Toji in hope that the boy get the silent message to keep moving and get his family to safety. Toji was too curious and awestruck to get the message though. The young master gritted his teeth and prepared for the worst.

"Foreigners have only profit gains in mind when it comes to the outcome of this war," Koshijirō began, "I cannot condone the building of wealth on the backs of the innocent." The crowd fell silent. "However, Edo is rife with lawlessness and violence. The Europeans and Americans take advantage of our own strife brought on by the prosecution of those who cannot defend themselves by any willing to flex a strong arm under a shogunate name. I will raise my sword to protect innocence. Not some proud name or ideals with no foundation for rebuilding order after granting chaos!"

Koshijirō placed a hand upon his wife's shoulder and went back to guiding her through the crowd. He felt the hostility his words had stirred but for whatever reason, whether it was uncertainty of skill against him as a master, the honor to not strike at a man before his wife and child, or peace of mind to not start a riot in a sea of enemies that stayed all blades against him. Koshijirō knew his words. He had just denounced any allegiance to the shogunate lords, but he also did not declare for the emperor. There were smiles on the faces of men garbed as Sekiho Army that had grabbed his undertones of renouncing the four classes but missed that they were part of the lawlessness and violence of Edo. There was one smile that showed complete admiration for Koshijirō's words - a man in fine garb that seemed to be the only one not carrying a sword.

Upon arriving at the new hot pot restaurant, Koshijirō would whisper an apology to Riko. His words had just turned a hostile eye to him; he would be expected to declare an allegiance soon. In his heart, he would fight for the Ishin Shishi, but they did not hold power here. The Tokugawa lord was rumored to have onmitsu, elite spies, in his employ. He doubted he would waste such talent on a mere dojo and it's master, but to have that be an option was still worrisome. He shuddered to think what would happen to his family.

He had barely touched the hot pot. Kaoru and Toji, being children, laughed about how all samurai feared Koshijirō. Riko focused her energy on entertaining the children. She wanted to comfort her husband but she knew he would need some time to think, and that war was not something to be discussed before children.

"I beg your pardon, sir," a calm yet noble voice interrupted the family. It was the well-dressed man from the crowd. "Master Kamiya, if I may have a word. I am Katsura Kogoro."

Koshijirō's eyes widened faintly. He had not been expected to be approached by such a prominent member of the Ishin Shishi. How open he was with himself was suspicious. Koshijirō unsure of how to react decided to just pretend he didn't know the name. "I am enjoying a meal with my family. I am sure whatever it is you have to say to me can wait."

Katsura smiled. "Of course. I hope you don't think me rude. When would be a good time to speak with you?"

Koshijirō felt the great presence of many killing kenki and realized that Katsura seemed to understand the urgency of his situation as the man himself bore no ill will. In fact, he felt his empathy to the anxiety. "Toji." He hated having to depend on such a small child, but he had no other allies.

Toji's back stiffened and he bowed his head. "Yes sir?"

"Take my wife and daughter straight back to the dojo."

Toji looked confused but didn't argue, unlike Kaoru, who sensed her father's unease and began crying at the idea of being separated from him while he had such that stern look on his face. Riko gathered the screaming girl up in her arms and began to sing soothingly to her as she left with the young student.

As if their departure were a cue, a flash of steel cut towards Katsura's head only missing barely by his dodge. There was a scream as three samurai clad in armor revealing their loyalties to the shogunate also revealed their blades. "Katsura! Rebel scum! You have some nerve showing your face with no bodyguard!"

Koshijirō stood and unsheathed his bokken. "And you who would create death in a place meant for peace and family should be ashamed to call yourselves samurai." Koshijirō took a fighting stance, placing himself between the men and Katsura.

"You're family is sworn to serve Tokugawa, Kamiya!" one of the other samurai spat, "Are you a traitor as well?"

"I will not allow suffering and death to occur before my eyes."

The samurai the spat and lunged at him. "Then you have just guaranteed your own!"

Koshijirō brought his bokken to the flat of the blade and then snaked its way to thrust into the man's sternum. The impacted strike doubly stole his attacker's ability to breathe and maintain composure from vomiting.

"Damn you!" one of his companions raged, taking his own charge. Koshijirō spun out of his way and brought the bokken down with an audible crack on the man's spine. His attacker felt his legs go numb and fell unaware before Katsura's feet.

Koshijirō glared at his final opponent. The man was shaking. He could see the movements but was not able to comprehend them. The only thing he knew was that the man before him had taken out him companions with one hit each of a wooden sword. Koshijirō took pity on the man, "Your comrades will need a doctor. Go fetch one." The last samurai nodded before running away.

"You are truly a master," Katsura complemented.

"No, a master of would not have just endangered his family."

Katsura bowed his head as a means to show comfort through his own humility. It didn't help. "You do yourself an injustice. If it will not infringe on your integrity, I would make use of your skill. If it is your family's welfare that has stayed your sword until now, I would repay your skill with my guarantee of safety for them."

"I would hope that it is better than the guarantee of safety you offer yourself." Katsura only smiled at that and offered one word. Promise.

* * *

Rage seeped from Koshijirō's every pore as Masumoto Gendo sipped his tea, pretending to not relish in Koshijirō's desperation. The family had a great deal of wealth from the silk trade, or that was the public understanding anyway. Gendo had ceaselessly complained on Koshijirō's stubbornness to betroth their children, claiming Toji's family wealth would be a boon for Kaoru. The kenjutsu master knew better, though. Toji was the youngest of five sons. Four sons were already betrothed to other wealthy merchant families. How much wealth Toji received would be based purely on the generosity of his brothers.

What Gendo wanted was the prestige of the Kamiya name, a samurai name. Without any male heirs, all of Koshijirō's assets would go to Kaoru's husband - a means for the house of Masumoto to be considered of the samurai class. Traditionally, such a cross-class marriage was not allowed. That had not stopped Koshijirō from marrying his goze wife, though.

'Gendo, you slimy social climber. Do you even care about your son?'

"I think it's a fair deal," Gendo spoke as if he could read Koshijirō's thoughts. "You ask us to look after your land as if we were family. You teach our son your samurai morals as if he were your own. From the day your sweet daughter was born, Toji has professed love for her as if he was a romantic character from Shinjū Ten no Amijima. Those love-suicide shows. It's best that we just make it official. Let us become as one family."

The hope and excitement in the children's eyes were not making this decision any easier. Neither child understood that they were being used.

Gendo's wife, Nami, slid in her own sly voice. "Of course, to make this official, we will need to discuss all the traditional accessories to an engagement." And there it was.

Riko interjected at this point. She could hear the bile building in her husband's voice. He was in no fit emotional state to be making these negotiations. "You're right, Nami, and considering the urgency of war I hope you do not feel us disrespectful in forgoing establishing our family go-betweens in the arrangement. Now, as for our assets, Koshijirō and I plan to divide it all equally between all of our children."

"Children? Forgive me, Lady Kamiya, but are you planning to have more?" there as a present sour note in Nami's voice. She did not like the idea that they may have to share the spoils.

"Yes. In fact, Koshijirō and I plan to try for a son that can pass on the teachings of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu." Koshijirō did his best to not be surprised at his wife's declaration. He had not discussed the idea with her yet. Riko smiled mockingly, "Why? Surely you do not think me too old to birth another child?" Her husband smiled his own mocking smile. He should have known that he could feel any desire without his wife's sharp senses picking up on them.

The heads of the Masumoto family recoiled at the accusation. "No, of course not!" they exclaimed in unison. They quickly regained composure and decided to let Riko continue so as to not lose any more face.

"How kind!" Riko giggled. "As an engagement present, we have been setting aside a savings that Toji can claim when he satisfies his genpuku. The amount should be equal to twelve ryo by then."

"Twelve ryo?" Gendo sneered. To the Kamiya's twelve ryo was substantial. A single ryo could buy ten cubic meters of rice. Apparently, Gendo did not feel the same. "When we received Yoshirou's engagement gift, the bridal family was generous with goods and coin equaling one hundred ryo."

"We are not merchants, Mister Masumoto," Riko's voice was completely even. "Our strength comes from the services we can provide."

"Such as?"

"Genpuku," Toji's voice was weak, "Is it true, Master Kamiya? Will you really bestow on me the samurai's rite of passage?"

Koshijirō looked into the boy's teary hopeful eyes. "Genpuku is earned, Toji. I will bestow it one any student that earns it."

Tears freely flowed down the boy's face. He bowed his head so low that he almost hit it on the floor. "I will work endlessly to live up to such an opportunity, sir! While your family is away there is not a day that will go by that I will not push myself beyond my limits!"

"While we are gone?" Riko pretended the innocent. "Toji, you will be coming with us." Everyone in the room became completely dumbfounded. Well, except for Kaoru who was squirming while muffling her own cheers of excitement. Riko sensed the Masumoto family about to object, but she knew the key to coming out on top of the arrangement at this point was to not let them have a word in yet. "Without a master to guide you, genpuku cannot be achieved, and as a student of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu it will not do for you to change masters. Your father said it himself: we teach you our morals as if you were our own child. It was be a dishonor to you if now that we have officially accepted you into the family to stop. Besides, it would break 'Little Cutie's' heart to be separated from one she loves so much."

Toji bowed his head again. "We accept with great honor! I will work every day under Master Kamiya's guidance to prove worthy of genpuku and your daughter. We accept your gift of twelve ryo!" Toji's parent's yelled his name in objection but Toji wasn't listening yet, "And in exchange, my family promises that the Kamiya home will be safe and intact for our return after the war." The boy suddenly remembered himself and looked pleadingly at his parents, "Um, right?"

Koshijirō's smile deepened. Greedy slime as they were they were, still parents wanting their son to be happy. The agreement was made. The documents signed. For the kenjutsu father it all happened so fast that it seemed a dream. It only became real when his little girl leapt up from her kneeling position when it was all over and hugged her new fiancé so tightly around his throat that he was gasping for air. The feast the Masumoto family hosted was a solemn event for Koshijirō, but he smiled all the same. Smiled and bared with his own unhappiness for the sake of seeing his child so happy.

It didn't take long for Toji to gather all the belongings he felt were needed for him to leave Edo. Katsura had allowed Koshijirō until sundown the next day to put his affairs in order. He would then take his family to a small village called Chiba where his family would stay. He himself would still rarely see them. Most of his time would be spent aiding and intercepting warriors travelling between Kyoto and Edo; all while never setting foot in either city. For that reason, the family sleeping at home tonight felt all the more important.

The estate was a decent size, but the house was still small. Only two rooms fit for sleeping and only big enough for three futons.

"Mama?" Kaoru asked, yawning as she entered the home. "Can me and Toji sleep in your room tonight?"

For the first time in a while, Koshijirō liked the idea of his daughter not sleeping in her own room. Now that there was a Toji's sleeping arrangements to consider, he had to reconsider a great deal of his parenting practices. "No, Kaoru my darling, we talked about this," Riko sighed. "You have to sleep in your own room."

"Where will Toji sleep? In my bed?" Kaoru asked.

"No way!" Koshijirō yelled, finding energy from nowhere. The family looked at him questionably. He composed himself clearing his throat. "Toji, now that Kaoru is your fiancé you have to assume the role of guarding her room from intruders at night. Until the day you are married, you must make sure that no man enters her room while she sleeps to dishonor her. There are ruffians that may try to steal her away out of jealousy of your good fortune. Any man that enters her room before your wedding day, including yourself, will taint the marriage with misfortune and unhappiness." Riko's expression became slightly annoyed at her husband's mistrust of the boy. The children were enamoured. "So, my soon-to-be son, I trust you to guard Kaoru's door with your life!"

Toji tried to suppress his own sleepiness with determination. "Y-yes sir!" He was failing miserably.

Riko put Kaoru to bed in her room. By the time she was done, Toji was slowly nodding off as he leaned against the wall outside her room. Koshijirō had already wrapped a blanket around him. The ex-goze found her husband already in bed. He was most likely staring at the ceiling. "The bathhouse incident disturbed you that much?" she asked teasingly. "You're over-reacting."

"No, I'm not."

"They're children. As far as they're concerned, when a married couple share the same bed all they do is sleep. If Toji catches cold over this I won't forgive you," she scolded.

"I don't like it. This whole affair isn't fair to Kaoru. I just pawned my daughter off for what? A little piece of mind? She's too young for this whole affair."

Riko changed into her sleeping yukata and prepared her hair for bed. "Toji cares deeply for her, and she's fond of him. Consider it a first love."

"First loves are built on convenience. Kaoru likes him so much because he's a boy that dotes on and plays with her. Toji doesn't know any other girls and is more romanced by the idea that she's his master's daughter than by her. They don't have the life experience to know what it truly is that would make them happy. If we had left Toji behind I know Kaoru would have cried but she would've gotten over it and more than likely they would be just as content if not more so with having nothing but pleasant memories of each other." Koshijirō growled deep in his chest.

Riko found her way to the futon and slid under the blankets. "True, but allowing them to gain such life experience together is not a bad thing. It is still up to them to go through with it or not, and now that we truly will be raising both of them we can instill the idea that in order for one to be honorable they owe duty first to their hearts, and not to some promise made between two sets of selfish parents. If their child's love stands the test of time and they remain to each other as adults as they are now, well I, as a mother, could not ask for more."

Koshijirō slid his arms around her wife. "Still…"

"Stop that! She's your little girl I understand that, but you're not giving the boy a fair chance! Toji is not his parents. It may be that he'll make for a poorly skilled samurai but I would much rather have a boy with his gentle and good-spirited nature as my son-in-law than a skilled swordsman! You know he's being honest when he says he will push his limits for her! What more can you want from him?" Riko had fisted some of her husband's thick bed-robe in her hands and she felt faint in her frustration.

Koshijirō kissed her forehead. "You're right. When it comes to Kaoru, you always seem to be right."

"That's because I'm a wonderful mother," she purred nuzzling his neck.

He chuckled and finally began to relax though, it seemed Riko's wandering hands wouldn't let him. "Are you sure you're feeling up for that?"

She giggled, "After all the excitement today? I think it's just what we need to calm down and relax."


	3. Prayers and Reality

**Chapter 2**

Prayers and Reality

The village was small and so freshly built that you could still stain your hands with the sap on the lumber. Built to be off the road enough to, hopefully, not get drawn into any roadside battles yet not so much as to reveal its purpose by hiding it too much. There were no occupants other than the families of samurai gone into hiding from the shogunate. This was a tactic many Ishin Shishi had taken to avoid retaliation upon their families. Katsura had not escorted them there, claiming he was still needed in Edo. Koshijirō didn't know if he should feel annoyed that he was expected to find this 'hidden' village or honoured.

There were times that he had worried that he had lost his way. Travelling with a blind, sick wife and two children tended to slow one's progress. A stress made more apparent when Riko's health took a turn for the worse on the second day of the trip. The family had to stop for half a day when she nearly collapsed from fever so that Koshijirō could construct a makeshift litter using found materials. To make up for the loss in time, Koshijirō dragged his sick wife and sleeping daughter on the litter over the night. Toji tried to help him drag it, but the tired child ended up helping more just by staying awake with his master and not adding to the weight of the load.

He had been expected to arrive yesterday. Katsura had not allowed him the luxury of time to relax before his first assignment. Weariness would not grant him succour. He was to assist another warrior carrying a secret weapon to a mountain just outside of Kyoto today; apparently the warrior was young and peculiar looking, thus Katsura felt he would draw too much attention by himself. It was odd. Why leave the weapon with someone you couldn't trust to be inconspicuous? Why have him escorted by a known master from Edo – wouldn't that draw more attention? He much preferred the idea of being a field soldier to such espionage.

Battle tactics dreamed by those in command need not concern him at the moment however. Time now to give his family rest. He languidly turned his head to his student. "Toji, go see if there's a doctor amongst this village while I find our new home, so that Riko can rest," he ordered.

"Me rest?" Riko laughed weakly, "You're the one that, literally, dragged this family here."

Koshijirō sighed. Normally her snide commentary would make him smile but his worry and fatigue would not allow him to be cheered now. "Please, sweetheart, save your strength." Off with youthful speed, his student went to dutifully fetch the doctor. Burdening weight felt lifted off of Koshijirō from that action alone.

The gassho style house with a red ribbon tied to post on the eastern end was their home. There were only eight houses in the whole village so finding it was easy enough. Koshijirō would have entered straight away but there was a young man, no... boy, sitting on the brick step in front of the door.

"Are you to be the occupant of this home?" the boy asked. Koshijirō didn't have to ask who the boy was. He carried a katana at his hip and look only just old enough to serve in the military. Red hair, yet still Japanese, Koshijirō had never seen such a thing. His eyes were urgent and serious as an enemy's wakizashi in seppuku; reflecting a kenki that was ready to kill, yet transparently sad. "You're late," the boy announced.

Neither swordsman expected the little wooden geta from a toddler's foot to be flung at the boy's head. The boy just barely avoided the little shoe to only be slightly dumbstruck at little Kaoru shaking her fist from the litter. "Mean boy! Mama's sick! You better let us in!" she warned.

The young warrior only now paid notice to the contents of the older samurai's load. Riko let out a sting of coughs from deep in her chest. At that moment, Koshijirō swore the boy's eye colour even changed when he mouthed a soundless apology to his daughter before going to help with the litter. Amazing the affect children had on a person's demeanour. Once his wife was safely inside and resting on a futon, Koshijirō returned his attention to the teen-aged boy. His eyes were back to the way they were before Kaoru's outburst. "I apologize for both my tardiness and my daughter's behaviour."

The boy obviously felt awkward. He didn't like that the schedule had been thrown off, but he couldn't find it in him to project his frustration of the older samurai. He just swallowed what he was thinking and found a wall to sit against.

Something inside Koshijirō didn't like seeing the boy so closed off. Kenki was like fire. Cold fire was something hellishly unnatural. "Tell me, boy, what is your name?"

"I am no boy!" the redhead snapped before looking at his knees, "My orders state that I am not to know the name of my escort nor am I to give you my own."

It suddenly became clear to Koshijirō what his mission truly was. "I see. Well, in that case," he turned his attention to his daughter, "Sweetheart, you must apologize to this young man."

"No!" Kaoru defied stamping her feet. Koshijirō shot her a stern look that shook her core. The girl sobbed a little turning to her mother, "Mama? I don't have to, do I?"

"You do not have to apologize," the boy tried to assure but his voice cracked with discomfort, "That you do not."

Kaoru beamed but Riko spoke up in a stern yet weak voice, "Yes," cough, "She does."

"Mama," the girl whined - her parents did not relent with their glares. She puffed her cheeks stubbornly. "I'll apologize if the jerk promises to not do anything else mean!"

Koshijirō smiled, "That sounds fair. What say you, boy?"

The redhead grunted through his teeth at being called boy again but otherwise relented. "Fine."

"Say it!" Kaoru demanded.

With a sigh, "I promise I won't do anything else mean."

Kaoru stood up and walked over to the boy. He blinked in surprise as she bowed humbly before him. "Then, I'm sorry too." The two locked eye briefly. The teenager was visibly uncomfortable with the four-year-old's serious expression. She seemed to think herself to have absolute authority over him. Suddenly, Kaoru smiled widely. "You have pretty hair!" she chirped grabbing a strong handful of red tresses and pulling.

"Ow!"

Koshijirō laughed as the serious boy was tormented by little Kaoru; feelings of assured pride that Kaoru could subdue such a kenki with her adorable charm. He did take pity on the boy - eventually. "Sweetheart, I'm sure the hair is prettier on his head."

"Master! I found a doctor!" Toji called, "Master?"

Koshijirō went to the door and called out to his student. "Over here!"

Toji ran in with a plump middle-aged man that looked more an alchemist than a doctor, but the man had the cool presence of concern that came from frequently dealing with the ill. "This boy tells me, sir, that your wife is ill?" Koshijirō nods his head and welcomes the doctor to examine his wife. The doctor bows respectfully introducing himself as Higashiyama Rin. The home was silent and anxious as the doctor worked. He put on some gloves and first checked her temperature. "Oh my! That's quite the fever. How long have you been sick, my dear?"

Riko heaved a heavy breath, "I started coughing seven days ago, but started feeling weak five days ago," she smiled a little, "I became a satchel to be carried two days ago."

Koshijirō grunted not appreciating the bit of black humor from his wife right now. The doctor laughed though, "You still got spunk. That's always a good sign." The doctor pulled at her eyelids a bit. "Your eyes… are you blind?"

"Mama's a goze," Kaoru interjected.

The doctor smiled warmly while continuing his examination. "Is she? She must have taught you lots of pretty songs."

Kaoru turned bashful. "I only remember one."

"Why don't you sing it, Little Cutie?" Toji offered, "You've been working hard on it. I'm sure it'll help your mother feel better!"

Kaoru blushed fiercely and looked to her twirling fingers. The young redheaded warrior felt compelled to help lighten the air. He mussed Kaoru's hair. "That sounds like a good idea. That it does." Kaoru squeaked at the contact and ran to Toji to bury her face in his gi. The teen-aged samurai was so perplexed by the little girl; so fearless of him until he tries to be nice. The redhead decided to let it go when the younger boy wrapped his arms around her protectively and stuck his tongue out at him - like the redhead was bullying Kaoru the was the impression it seemed. Children could be so absurd.

Higashiyama seemed to finish his examination. Tension increased when he took out a bottle and held it up to Riko's lips, silently asking her to swallow. After she complied, he took out a paper mask and placed it over her mouth and nose.

"What was that?" Kaoru asked finding her courage from nowhere.

"Morphine: a special medicine to help your mama relax," the doctor reassured. He looked at Kaoru with gentle eyes. "You see, your mama has a sickness called influenza. It's a mean illness that makes her feel sore and weak. She has a lot of yucky mucus in her that her body's trying to cough and sneeze out that you have to be careful around, because touching it can make you sick - hence the mask. We'll need to make sure she gets lots of sleep and water. Everyone and everything that touches her has to be clean, keep her warm, and don't let her share anything she eats or drinks. You got all that? Do all that and she'll get better."

Kaoru nodded at the kind explanation and smiled reassured. "All right. I'll go find the well and get some water for her to drink." Kaoru bolted out of the room. She forgot to grab a bucket.

"Toji, stay with my daughter."

"Um, yes sir." Toji ran out after Kaoru making sure to grab and bring a bucket with him.

The teen-aged boy decided to address the heavy air that lingered. "Influenza is something normally recovered from, but wouldn't there be signs of recovery after five days?"

Higashiyama's reassuring expression saddened. "She's straining a great deal. Recovery at this point is possible, but it'll require total care throughout the day. The next couple of days are bringing in winter winds. She won't have an easy time."

"Anything you can do, I would be in your debt," Koshijirō nearly pleaded.

"I've already told everything to your daughter that can done. I will come and see her when I am able. This is a season for illness though, and I cannot attend to her alone," the doctor answered. "Just stay with her until she recovers."

'Damn it!' Koshijirō cursed, 'Either I abandon my mission or my wife now?' Koshijirō placed his face in his hands. "I'm sorry, boy," he managed after a moment of silence, "but I cannot leave with my wife like this. I cannot escort you on the mission."

The youth nodded. "It's all right. I can easily make it there without you." A morphine bottle struck the teenager in the head. "Ow! What was that-" The boy froze sensing… was this a kenki? Not quite, there was an energy of fierce anger and pride that was focused on the two samurai. A force of personality that demanded obedience stricter than any master.

Riko's speech was whistling with difficulty but assertive, "Don't you dare insult my husband's capabilities, and, Husband, don't you dare leave this gentle boy in such danger. I will be fine. I am not a

promise breaker. You two are already late and missions in war cannot be compromised for anything." Her voice started going louder and more demanding with each word, "Now, both of you get going before I find the strength to throw you to your destination!"

* * *

The teen-aged samurai held mixed emotions: shame that he was driven to such fear by a sickly blind woman, relief at how peaceful the trip seemed to be - as any rumour of them having to fight could be an endangerment - and admiration for the older samurai traveling with him. Ever since he had left his master's side he had not found anyone that could keep pace with him in running, and for so long.

They had run until twilight yesterday and, without stopping even for food, ran until the sun started to set today. They would probably still be running if the redhead had not decided to complain of hunger. He knew they both felt it. It was after two skipped meals he realized the older samurai would never complain. 'We have more than made up for the lost day,' the teenager thought, 'He pushes himself to return to his family sooner.' The teenager felt a pang of envy and wondered if the ghostly visages he recalled as his parents were anything like this man and his wife.

"No one should have to go so long without a meal."

With his complaint, it was wordlessly decided that they would continue until they had found a village. Thankfully, they arrived at twilight before all services closed down and supped in the local soba shop. A small place that looked to have been freshly remodelled judging by the newness of the furnishings on such a worn in and well travelled floor.

Eating together was calm and pleasantly hushed. Sitting across from each other, the older samurai with his sword at his back, the teenager with his sword in his lap, neither man felt the need to push for small talk.

"Two pork soba and a bottle of sake?" the teenager asked. There was no objection.

When the older samurai nearly finished with his meal, he spoke for the first time since the trip began. "Excuse me," he addressed the waitress, "Would there be a room for my student and I to catch our rest in available anywhere?" The teenager blinked in surprise. Student?

The adolescent waitress looked at the older samurai as if she were scrutinizing a convict. Her expression to the redhead was not anymore pleasant. "How long will you be staying?" she asked addressing the boy and not the older man.

The young samurai creased his brow at her, frankly, rude behavior. "Just tonight," the boy answered.

The older samurai mused a bit leaving the boy to answer. "We don't have much money," the boy said sternly, "One room with two straw mats will be fine."

The girl huffed and slammed their tab on the table. "There's a stable you can sleep in, then!" With that, she stormed away.

The older samurai recomposed himself. "Thank you. That will be fine." She was gone already. So that older samurai just finished his meal still chuckling. The boy was equal parts annoyed and flabbergasted.

"What was that about?" the redhead seethed. "And you, 'Master', what's so funny?"

"Its amazing that our waitress seems to have a better idea of the state of affairs then you do," the older man teased. "Such a calculating face but you can't even think of the fact that by keeping your sword somewhere so quick to draw that you give the impression of a hoodlum looking to start a fight." The man could not contain himself and busted into laughter.

It suddenly clicked for the young samurai and his face turned as red as his hair. This town was basically right on the warpath. Fights and property damage were probably becoming too regular of an occurrence. He suddenly felt the familiar laugh of his true master ringing in his ears. Thus, a familiar response kicked in - scream in anger then flee. "Don't laugh as if it were my fault!" And to that, the young samurai slammed payment for the tab on the table and left. The real laughter of his fake master and the imagined laughter of his real master following him out the door. His stomach told him after he left that he had only eaten half his soba, but he wasn't going back in there.

The stable the girl referred to was easy enough to find. The youth took note that there were no horses, and he assumed that they were all probably taken as a 'war tax'. Better their horses than their food. Besides, it meant that the stable was clean too. The young warrior was about to bed down when he heard the familiar voice of his traveling companion behind him. "Hey, boy!"

"I told you not to call me-"

A wooden bowl with cool soba was shoved into his hands. "You shouldn't waste good food."

The redhead's stomach growled, so he swallowed his pride and finished his forgotten meal. "Why'd you call me your student?" he asked between bites. "It seems like a pointless lie."

"Would you rather I say the future hitokiri I'm escorting?" the older samurai questioned.

The redhead froze mid-bite. 'Am I that obvious?' he worried.

The older samurai seemed to read his mind. "My mission is to help escort a secret weapon. The details struck me as odd at first. Your orders to not divulge your name to me and the condition of your sword told me the last details that brought the puzzle into clarity. You are that secret weapon, but simply traveling on the road to Kyoto by yourself at your age and with your coloring? You stick out like a broken thumb. A student accompanying his master to war though, no matter how odd you look, that's a dime a dozen sight. On top of that, because you look so odd memory of your skill will stand out more. If only my swordplay is seen the master/student facade will give any surviving enemies a false impression of your skill."

The boy let out an exasperated sigh at the cracks about his appearance but decided to let the man finish. "A hitokiri cannot reveal himself to anyone outside of the corp they work under; too risky. Thus, you get orders to not exchange names."

"I could be the son of a lord simply needing protection," the boy eluded.

"I considered that. Your sword is of a fine make but it's practical and used."

"I have not drawn it."

"I don't need to see the edge of a sword to know its quality," the older samurai sounded annoyed at the boy's attempt at subterfuge. "The leather straps on the handle are faded and loose. The grip matches the calluses on your hands. The iron of the hilt and scabbard is dull and nicked from use yet it sits at your hip with perfect balance." The hitokiri could not help but smile. He was impressed. "There's also the way you carry yourself. You're confident, not arrogant. An arrogant lord's brat would be itching to fight and kill - wanting to drink in glory. Your kenki tells me you're ready and willing to kill, but it also says that you don't care about the glory."

The boy smiled as he finished his soba and laid back into the straw. He felt happy talking to the man. "You have quite the keen eye," he complemented.

"Only in matters involving fighting and preventing fights. You want observant, you should talk to my wife."

"Ah," the teenager pondered for a moment. Now that the ice had been broken he felt the need to make more conversation. "The boy; Toji. He really is your student?"

"He is."

"He must be very skilled."

"He's awful." This shocked the boy but before he could ask why he would bring a sub-par student with him the older samurai continued. "He's my daughter's fiance."

'Fiance? She looks no older than five!' The tone of the man told the redhead that the topic was an unpleasant one. He decided to drop it. Of course, now this left the teenager twitching in the straw uncomfortably.

"My wife. She likes you." This statement was confusing. The older man laughed, "She would only take that kind of tone with someone that made her feel very comfortable. She's a good judge of character, and she can read the deepest feelings in your heart without any effort. I've learned to trust her instincts in that matter. What was the word she used? Gentle. She said you were gentle."

The boy smiled and his envy returned. "I hope…" the boy whispered.

There was silence. The boy suspected his escort to have fallen asleep. He was about to doze himself when the older samurai broke the silence. "You hope what?"

The boy closed his eyes. "I hope your wife is feeling better."

The man yawned. "My wife is as stubborn as a mule. She promised my daughter the day she was born that she would take her to see Okinawa someday. She won't die with an unkempt promise. Your well wishes are appreciated though."

"Okinawa?"

"It's where she's from. I think we'll go there after the war."

The boy was silent. 'After the war,' he pondered, 'I wonder what I'll do. I can't go back to my master… I have nowhere else to go.' "What's Okinawa like?"

"I don't know. I've never been there. My wife says it's a land where the people have souls older than memory. It's always warm and no matter how far inland you go the air smells of sea salt. To hear her tell it, the ocean gifts its people with the wonders of the world, but visitors are so jealous of the holy feeling of the land the they would spill blood just to feel apart of it. That's why so many songs from there are so sad," the older man lost himself the sadness of such a place. "I asked her once if she either loved it or hated it. She said it's not about love or hate. Our very souls are born on Okinawa. If that's the case, I understand why she wants our daughter to see it."

"Then, I wish your family a safe journey," the boy had a notably happy hum to his voice.

The older samurai couldn't help but wonder a little about his wife's ability to read people without see them. More than once, he wondered if she could read kenki as he did, but he would dispose of that idea as her ability read insights much different from that which kenki provided. "My wife has good instincts," he stated as if he had just decided this. "You are quite kind. Will you be returning home after the war?"

"No. Before the war, I only travelled with my master. The closest thing to a home I had was just being at his side, but he was stubborn and refused to fight in the war. So I left."

"That's not stubborn. It's smart."

"I can see where someone with a loving family like you would say that, but my master and I have no family. We have no excuse-" The older samurai punched the boy in the head stopping him mid-sentence.

"Blood never washes away! Didn't your master teach you that?" the man scolded. "There are no evil people; only evil actions. I will soon kill to protect my family, but what of the man I killed? He may not have a family but is this person not entitled to protect their home or livelihood."

"Such livelihoods are built on blood of innocents!"

"You cannot kill a king without damning many innocents under his rule," the older man explained. "And what will happen to those left behind? Those innocents that depended on the man you killed."

"I will offer my life as penance."

"Pay blood for blood? Then what happens when the evil occurs again? Your death only paves the way or someone else to dirty their hands in your place," the older samurai took note that his last words seemed to hit the right nerve.

The boy was affected, perhaps not convinced but affected. He relaxed and looked up at the ceiling. "I will dirty my hands with an old hope. A hope that I will be the last one to do so. The war is here. There is nothing I can do to stop it now, but when it is over I will use my dirty hands to make sure no one else will dirty their own. That will be my penance. I will protect and to prevent war, and I will do so without killing.

"My enemies won't forget me after I'm dead. They'll just seek new ways to strike at my long dead spirit. If I kill, I will only make more enemies of those that depended on the man I killed, and if I die, then that vengeance will have no other place to fall but on my family.

"You say you have no family. I doubt your enemies will see it that way. We do not live in voids unaffected by each other. You're young. You'll find love. You'll make friends, and you do have that master to return to… no matter how estranged."

The boy was quiet and staring at his knees. This man's way of thinking seemed wise to the child in him but part of his soul would say that it was simply a beautiful lie. A lie shown bare by the simple fact that the man was here. He was a warrior in war. His blade would taste blood even by his own acknowledgement. Still, to have the will to hold on to such a wish now made it hard for the boy to determine if his companion was surmount-ably hopeful in nature or simply stubborn and hypocritical.

The older samurai placed a hand on the top of the teenager's head. "To face war without hope for a home to look forward to is too depressing for a boy like you. After the war, you're welcome to come and live with my family."

The young hitokiri's head flung up to meet the sincere brown eyes of the samurai. "But-"

"Unless you plan on breaking your promise to my daughter to stop being mean," he joked.

The redhead smiled. "No."

The samurai yawned and laid back in the straw to sleep. "Good. My family hates it when people break promises."

Sleep came easily for the two men and the next day's run was passed in comfortable silence. The boy did want to talk more with his comrade, but knew the worry that spurred his haste. For now, it was better to save words for later. Hopefully, for after the war.

By late morning on the fourth day, they arrived at the checkpoint the boy was to smuggle himself through. Their goodbye was a simple exchange of sincere smiles before the older samurai turned to return to his family. As he watched the samurai go the boy made a realization. The mission was over. He cupped his hands over his mouth to project his voice. "My name is Himura Kenshin! What's your name?"

Kenshin heard a voice call back, but he couldn't make out the words. He shrugged, "Oh well, he's got a big enough family already. I won't impose. May you and your family have happy lives in Okinawa."

* * *

Kaoru could hear Toji practicing outside. Normally, she'd be out there with him correcting his mistakes. Her mama had said to let the doctor take care of her while her papa was away doing something very important. She still offered to help the doctor. She'd fetch water and clean while Toji cooked since she was too small to work with fire. Higashiyama would visit three times a day to give Riko some medicine and clean her up.

She knew her papa would be home any day now and wanted to go watch for him, but something about how her mama was breathing today kept her glued to her side. "Mama?" she said in half a sob. Why was she wanting to cry? Hopelessness squeezed at her little heart. "Mama, I learned the song."

Doing the best she could in between hiccuping sobs, Kaoru began to sing the Min'yo her mother taught her. The air was so dry that it hurt her throat. 'Please, Mama. Open your eyes,' she prayed. When she finished the song on one last hiccup the little girl looked down at her mother. She was serene, peaceful, and oh so still.

Kaoru had never seen death before. She had never been really properly told about it, but - at this moment - she recognized it. The cold reality of her mother's still breathless body that would never respond to her again was a miasma she felt forced to breath in. Thus, Kaoru did the only thing a four year old child could think to do. She wept.

So, ear-splitting was her cry that she was not aware that she was heard throughout the village. She did not hear the reassuring words of adults that had took it upon themselves to comfort the unattended girl, nor did she feel the embrace of the young boy holding her as he desperately tried not to cry himself. There was no difference between the warmth of the sun that day and the cold of that night. She cried hours past having a voice too hoarse to make sound and eyes too dry to make tears.

Only one thing would calm her now.

The relief had been gone now for eight days, but fate was not so cruel as to allow for the ninth. Strong arms wrapped her tiny frame in a wool blanket and held her to his chest. Her eyes bloodshot from anguished closed, and her face red and fevered became calmed. That reminder that her father was with her now gave her the assurance she needed to let sleep tentatively claim her mind. So long as he did not move. For now, she could stop crying.

"Master," Toji whimpered, anguished and exhausted. "I tried! I really tried, but I… I…"

Koshijirō shushed both the children gently. "I know. I know." The twenty-five year old master felt so old and feeble. His daughter felt as though she weighed over two-hundred kilograms, but no force in the world would break his grasp on her. Looking upon the cold dead face of his wife, he wanted to cry himself, but paternal duty demanded fortitude for the sake of the two children. He had failed to be there for the moment of Riko's death. He would not fail in this.

"You did well, Toji. Thank you for taking care of Kaoru," he gave the boy his best face of strength and sincerity. It allowed Toji to go from back-up sobbing to openly weeping. 'You are still a child, yourself. You should not have been burdened with this yet.' The Master wanted to say this to his disciple, but decided that such reassurances would only hurt the boy's pride. The boy was trying to be a man right now; better to treat him as one right now.

"Toji, has Doctor Higashiyama been by to see the body yet?" The boy wiped the tears from his eyes as he nodded. Emotion were overtaking his words for the moment forcing him to pause to regain himself before speaking. "He was waiting for my return, then," Koshijirō confirmed aloud. "Let him know that we can proceed with the cremation. Tell him we'll be acknowledging her with Ryukyu-an rites."

"Ryukyu-an?" Toji queried gaining control of himself. "Isn't that… a little old?"

Koshijirō smirked at the boy's curiosity. On mainland Japan, such ancestor worship was rather archaic. There was already controversy with the various Shinto and Buddhist sects, and Riko had never really shown any inclinations regarding religion. Okinawan songs were full of religious theme, though, and he felt it most respectful to his wife to acknowledge her home as opposed to any gods or Bodhisattva when it came to her behalf. "It's may seem strange to you, I understand, but I know it will allow Riko's spirit to smile at us. We'll makeshift a buchidan altar for her to rest at until we return to Edo. Then, we'll give her to the Kamiya burial site."

Toji put on a brave face. He did like the idea of Riko's spirit staying around to smile at them. "Yes sir." With that said, Toji took to his task.

Having a moment to not have to be brave, Koshijirō allowed a few tears to fall as he looked at his deceased wife and held his sleeping child. He could not allow much without risking waking Kaoru or being unable to compose himself when Toji returned. Part of him was angry: angry at the war for forcing this strain, angry at himself for getting caught up in it, and angry at her for demanding he leave to protect a boy that really didn't need protection. He felt he should say something - to let his feelings out to her face before it disappeared into ash, but he knew that anything he really wanted to aloud would send him over an emotional edge he would not have to strength to climb back from – still, he couldn't just say nothing.

"Riko…" he paused thoughtfully considering his feelings. The tears were not beckoned but still controlled, "That gentle boy's name is Himura Kenshin, and he gave me well wishes for you."


	4. What Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Means

**Author's Note:** Making up for lost time in getting these chapters up. I hope you enjoy.

This chapter and the last were courteously beta'd by: Scarred Sword Heart. Much obliged.

**Chapter 3**

What Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Means

Kaoru scrubbed the hakama pants furiously. She hated doing laundry but it was her chore. She did laundry and washed the floors and furniture while Toji cooked and washed dishes. With her father gone fighting at multiple days at a time, the two children had learned to live by themselves. The villagers were kind. Many were wives of samurai with children of their own, so they understood Koshijirō's responsibility and took it upon themselves to check on the two children while he was away. Both frequently got compliments on their good behaviour and many of the women said watching Kaoru and Toji was like watching an adorable game of house come to life.

Toji was eleven now and took his training regiment very seriously. Everyday he practiced his katas, performed his exercises, and ran his laps. Usually these exercises would go along with Kaoru only just behind him, even though, she wasn't an actual kenjutsu student.

Toji used to be embarrassed that a girl so young could keep pace with him, but Kaoru would reassure him that it was because she was Koshijirō's daughter. Besides, it turned out he had a talent of his own. Toji being the cook wasn't an assignment of age convenience, well, not since last year when Koshijirō was finally convinced that she was being honest when Kaoru said that she understood that fire was hot.

Regardless, Toji was easily the superior cook. The Kamiya family swore he was the reincarnation of a master chef; grilling, roasting, baking, and now the boy was even learning how to make sake. What he lacked in kenjutsu he more than made up for with cooking. He even seemed to like it more than kenjutsu.

It actually endeared the boy more to Koshijirō seeing Toji develop his own personality and skills outside of working towards what he thought was expected of him. The boy still worked in his kenjutsu, and his honest mentality embraced the idea of a 'sword the gives life'. These were facets to being in the Kamiya family, though; not complete profiles.

Kaoru giggled. When father was home the family felt perfect. She told Toji every time he left that her papa had to come home to a perfect, peaceful house. She felt he'd come home sooner if she made the home happy.

"Little Cutie!" Toji called from behind the house. "Little Cutie, it's time to strain it! I need you to hold the linen!"

Kaoru flopped the damp hakama over the stool she used to reach the clothes line and ran to Toji. "And here I was almost done," she pouted.

"With the laundry?" Toji scratched the back of his head nervously. "But the sake has to be strained now or-"

"Yeah, yeah," Kaoru waved him off grabbing the linen. "Now, what do I hold this over?"

Toji put a ceramic jug in front of her and placed a wooden funnel over the spout. "Just hold it over this funnel, please." Kaoru did so and Toji began to pour the pulpy white liquid over the cloth. It took a couple of spills before Kaoru figured out the proper tightness to hold with. "Careful, Little Cutie. Please, careful!"

"It stinks!" she complained. "And I thought sake was supposed to be clear! Are you sure you made it right?"

Toji blushed at the accusation. "I followed the instructions the best I could. I'm sure it's fine. Sake is supposed to smell bad to kids."

"If you make Papa sick with this, I'll give you so many lumps!" Kaoru threatened.

"I promise, he won't get sick!" The two children finished straining all the pulp from the freshly fermented brew. Toji quickly dried the rim and shoved a cork in the jug, slamming it down with his palm. "Now, we got to put it on ice."

Kaoru flung all the pulp from the linen into a waste bucket to be taken away from the house later. "I thought you said it had to stay dry," her voice had lost its previous condescension and was more quizzical now.

"It'll be fine in this jug, but we have to cool it for a day now." Toji heaved the heavy jug into a dry shady place and grabbed a basket. "Thanks." With that said, he affectionately patted her cheek and took off to buy ice.

Kaoru blushed. "You're welcome," she mumbled to Toji's back. When he rounded the corner Kaoru sniffed the linen and gave a wince. "Bleh! Do adults really enjoy that?" She took the linen back to her washing bucket and went back to her chore.

The village was quieter than usual. It had grown to be a village in its own right since her family had come, with many of the newer occupants being refugee families fleeing the chaos of Kyoto. Most of those eventually moved on, but some did decide to take up permanent residence resulting in the formation of a small peddlers' market and around twenty-some houses. Many of the original families were leaving now that many warriors considered the revolution over.

The last month had been quite the bustle as samurai came through telling the children their war stories. Kaoru took to giggle fits hearing news of the onna-bugeisha out of Aizu, while Toji would always get really enraptured at the more recent stories of sighting the Hitokiri Battousai. Kaoru didn't understand why and whenever she asked Toji would just say, "Red hair! Don't you remember?" To which Kaoru would always shake her head. She really had no idea what he was talking about, and he'd always just shrugged her off instead of explaining. "If you don't remember then there's no need to explain."

It frustrated her so much that before her father left for his most recent mission she had asked him about it. Koshijirō would just frown and have the same sad look in his eye he had whenever he looked at her mother's urn. "Women and little girls should not concern themselves with the monsters of war. Peace is coming. Think more of the gentle people that will need help finding happiness."

Kaoru finished the last of the laundry and hung it to dry. She, then ran through the house to inspect it. It was going to be spic and span when her father got home. Koshijirō had promised a surprise for them and a dirty house would not sour it. By the time she had finished with her inspection, Toji had returned and waited expectantly for her with her little leather wrapped stick and his shinai. If he ever started practice without her she'd throw a fit.

"I think I'm going to add work to the exercises today," he explained as Kaoru adjusted her kimono to allow for some of the kenjutsu exercises. Kaoru gave him a pouty lip. She recently discovered an eight year old's grasp on modesty, and it had started to get in the way of the more rigorous exercises. She hated that; him doing more exercises meant that she may fall behind, but at least she, now, knew how to tie her obi and run in such a way that the lower half of the kimono didn't fly open.

"You're so lucky! Papa won't buy me hakama," she lamented, taking her stick.

Toji just smiled and patted her cheek with his usual affection. "If I'm going to be good enough to go through genpuku then I need to push myself. The work has gotten too easy, and I only have four more years."

Kaoru playfully whacked his left arm with her stick. "If you keep worrying about it you'll fail from thinking too much." She then started stretching. Toji grumbled about how he had a right to worry, then joined her.

They stretched, did their practice swings, and were just about to start running their laps when a scream was heard from the peddlers' post. "I didn't do anything! Honest!" Toji and Kaoru gave each other determined looks before heading to learn the cause of the commotion.

When they arrived, they took notice of the stocky ruffian grasping a spice peddler by his collar. The satchel containing his goods had been thrown to the ground. "Scum!" the stocky thug growled. "I recognize you! You were a servant to my family before the damned Ishin Shishi burned my estate! These spices you're selling were probably pillaged from my stores!"

"No, I swear, I bought them legitimately when your estate was lost!" the peddler begged.

"Lost? Stolen! All my land! All my wealth!" the former minor lord bellowed. "To lose something is to not know what became of it! I know what became of my estate!"

"Please, sir, I bought these spices legitimately in Kyoto!"

"From who? A servant like you could never have been able to afford such spices; not for years of wages! You bought goods pillaged by Ishin Shishi. It's the only way you could have. Therefore, you bought stolen goods. As far as I'm concerned, you are just as bad as those Ishin Shishi thieves."

"Stop it!" Kaoru screamed. "Mister Fukui is a nice man who doesn't steal."

"Fukui?" the former minor lord grumbled. "Since when would a lower class wretch like you need a surname?"

"T-The new era. I'm allowed to take a surname to pass-" The peddler surnamed Fukui was silenced with a punch to the jaw from his former lord.

"Leave him alone!" Kaoru demanded and struck her stick across the thug's knee. The man let out a yelp, but before he could turn his rage on little Kaoru, Toji was at him striking the underside of his extended elbow with a downward clack. The children were quite relentless in their assault: running in circles around the man, taking turns smacking his extremities, and jabbing the air from his stomach.

The man did attempt to go for his own katana, but the children would crack their weapons across his right hand whenever it came to hover around his left hip. "I will not allow anyone to hurt a defenseless and unarmed person," Toji declared bringing his shinai down on the man's shoulder with a jump. "No innocents will be harmed in front of Masumoto Toji of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu!"

The man yelled in pain and dropped to one knee. The two children stood in between the thug and the peddler. They were more than ready to resume their assault should the man make any hostile move. The thug spat, "Some new era. Low level scum can steal from their betters, children will attack their elders, and girls will think themselves boys." The man stood up and took a couple of stumbling steps backwards. "This is the new era? What an injustice!" the man bellowed as he drew his katana and went to bring it down on Toji.

Toji brought up his shinai to block, however, the motion turned out to be unnecessary. Using how much shorter she was to her advantage, Kaoru ducked and weaved around the downward coming blade and thrust the blunted tip of her stick upward beneath the lower jaw of her opponent – his screaming mouth was forced closed. The sound of teeth cracking was heard.

When the man stepped away from the stick, he spat out a surprising amount of blood across the faces of the two children. The second that passed felt as if it happened in slow motion before Toji's eyes as he heard Kaoru let out a blood-curdling scream. When his eyes fell between the feet of Kaoru and their attacker, reality crashed around him. The man was starting to collapse as he was passing out – all because, in the dirt, lay a small fleshy lump. Kaoru's strike had forced the man to bite off his own tongue.

* * *

Kaoru was shaking as she and Toji sat outside the hut of the plump old Doctor Higashiyama. It had been a day, yet neither child had born the presence of mind to have slept, eaten, or even have washed the blood, now dried to their faces and clothes, off.

Toji had run for the doctor immediately. Higashiyama had dropped his own meal to help upon hearing that someone had bitten out their tongue. When he returned, the peddler was holding back Kaoru's hair while her stomach purged away into dry heaves. The man was passed out, luckily, on his side so as not to choke on his own blood.

Fukui had stayed with the children the whole night. He had tried to cheer them by saying they had probably saved him from a similar fate, but he soon acknowledged that the only occupation on their minds would be Koshijirō's reaction. This was the other reason he stayed. Any adult with a shred of compassion would not let these children face their despair alone until the one responsible for them returned.

When Koshijirō had found them in the early hours of the morning the gossip had already reached his ears. He looked down upon his daughter and his ward with a pitiable yet stoic sadness. "Are either of you hurt?" his voice was low and steady. Toji and Kaoru remained silent but did both manage to shake their heads in response. Koshijirō released a breath of relief. The tired master stepped to the door of the clinic and gave a light knock. When the doctor answered the door Koshijirō bowed his head respectfully. "How is this injured man?"

The doctor nodded, "He'll be fine. He will never be able to speak properly again as he is now missing a little more than a fourth of his tongue and chewing will be painful for a while. He can still live an honourable life, though."

"I am glad. Let him know that the one responsible for the children is here and ready to make penance for them."

Kaoru's head snapped up fearfully. Tears came streaming anew down her face, and she reached for her father feeling helpless. "Papa!" She would have wailed but Toji's hand came around her mouth to hush her.

Koshijirō eyed the two children before returning his attention back to the doctor. "Please ask if he will see me."

The doctor bowed and went into his clinic closing the door behind him. When Koshijirō returned his attention back to the children, that's when Fukui found it appropriate to speak. "You are Master Kamiya, I take it?" Fukui asked pensively. Koshijirō nodded. "Then, I will thank you as well. Your children did me a service in protecting my person from the man inside the clinic. I do not believe anyone meant to take this unfortunate event as far as it went, but please remember this; if not for them I am sure the good doctor would be tending to injuries on me."

Koshijirō nodded solemnly. "Thank you. Your words do my house honor. I will consider them when I am considering their punishment." The children winced at that word; punishment.

Toji dropped down to his knees and bowed before his kenjutsu master. "Sir, I beg your forgiveness! It was all my fault! I take full responsibility! I got scared and was reckless. Before I knew it, I had brought my shinai to the man's face."

Kaoru's eyes shot down to her kneeling fiance. 'Is he…? Is he taking the blame for what I did? Why?'

Toji continued, "I injured that man and worse, my complacency and inaction had allowed for your daughter, my Kaoru, to be put into danger. Mr. Fukui is kind for his words, but I understand that it was my failings that caused this. I failed to keep my beloved fiance from danger and nearly broke the oath of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu to never raise my sword in a killing strike. I take full responsibility! Please, punish only me. Don't punish Little Cutie!"

Koshijirō's eyes fell on Kaoru's stunned face. She wanted to say something, but for her life, her mind could not materialize any thought. After a few moments of silence, Koshijirō took his disappointed eyes from his daughter and looked sadly back to his student. "I understand. Mr Fukui, would you then please take my daughter to my neighbor, Miss Koizumi? Let her know what has happened. My daughter is in need of a bath and some food. Tell her I would appreciate it." Fukui bowed respectfully and took Kaoru by the hand.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. Koizumi was very kind. Kaoru found herself leaving the older woman's company in a newish kimono with a clean scent and a full belly. It was her father that had fetched her that evening. Which was odd, since Koshijirō would usually have sent Toji on such an errand.

They stood outside the house for a long time. Koshijirō seemed to be waiting for Kaoru to say something. Eventually, she did find her words. "Was… was the man angry?"

"He was."

"Is Toji okay?" she whimpered. "You didn't let him hurt Toji, did you?"

"Toji is fine. You and Toji are still children and my responsibility. Your mistakes should be for me to pay."

"Then…"

"The man, Tachibana, didn't want penance from me. When I offered to pay for Toji's sins, the man simply left in his anger." Koshijirō sighed, "I pray his fury and shamed pride be healed along with his injuries."

Kaoru felt relief wash over her. It had all worked out. She had taught that horrible man a lesson and nothing bad happened to anybody she cared about as a repercussion. She hugged her father happily and giggled a little bit when he picked her up to embrace her. Her father set her down when he became convinced that Kaoru would not speak anymore of the event. He affectionately placed his hand on top of her head.

"Kaoru, do you remember home?" he asked. To Kaoru, this village was home, but she also knew that she was the only one that felt that way in their little family. Whenever her father or Toji mentioned the place from long ago, she would try to picture it. She'd have memories of a big dojo with students other than Toji. There was a wall built all around with a gate. The house the same size as their current gassho but their gassho was one big room due to being thrown up in a hurry while her memory of the old house had many small rooms.

She felt it was a happy place as all her memories there were of Toji and her father smiling. There was another smiling face too. The face of a pretty lady with long hair the color of a stormy night sky. In Kaoru's memory the woman was always wearing an indigo kimono holding Kaoru, while the scent of jasmine blossom wafted in the air, and singing a song that sounded sad yet, somehow, comforting.

Remembering her broke Kaoru's concentration, and so she nodded in confirmation of her father's question. He smiled softly, "Well, Edo has been surrendered. Tomorrow we're going home."

Kaoru did not know what to think. "Will we ever come back here?"

Koshijirō was a little shocked at the question. He had not considered that Kaoru may want to stay and mentally kicked himself for not realizing that his daughter would feel more attached to this place than Edo. "Eh, well, no. Probably not, but Edo is a big and exciting city. There will be a lot going on and more children for you to play with. I'll be able to stay home too."

Kaoru was a little sad, but she did like the thought of more kids. She had been the youngest in the village aside from one or two babes and most kids Toji's age weren't interested in playing with her. So she just gave him a cheerful smile and a nod before adjourning into the house.

Toji was already cooking dinner and it smelled divine. Toji, himself, looked different, though. In the years they lived together, Toji had grown his fine black hair long and had styled it up in a chomage minus the shaved pate. He had always dressed himself in a swordsman's gi and hakama as well. Now, Toji's hair was short as if cut from the chomage and he wore the only non-sleeping yukata he owned with his dark blue haori. He gave a sad smile to the two. "Oh, welcome back, Little Cutie!"

"Toji! What happened to your hair?" Kaoru pouted as she liked his long hair.

Toji just shut his eyes and continued to smile. "Don't worry about it," he reassured, "It'll grow back." He went back to monitoring the food, tasting it occasionally to test its flavour. Kaoru's mind raced and her eyes darted around the room seeing if there was anything else that was different. Her eye caught her stick used for kenjutsu practice broken and burning in the fireplace. A hiccup came to her throat that Toji caught immediately. "Oh! Little Cutie, let's go get your Papa's present," he suggested taking her by the hand and pulling her to the back of the house.

When they were outside, Kaoru ripped her hand away. "What happened, Toji? Why'd you cut your hair? And my..!" she sobbed. "Are we not allowed to practice anymore?"

Toji patted her cheek affectionately. "I'm no longer a student of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu," he said sadly.

"Why!" She reaction more a command for an answer than a question.

"Students of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu are those that are sworn to protect life and never kill. That man… he almost bled to death," Toji explained.

"That wasn't your fault, though!" Kaoru yelled. "I'm the one who hit him!"

Toji shushed her. "Nobody but us knows that! Listen, I wasn't doing a good job protecting you. I shouldn't have let you come along, and there's no sense in both of us being punished. You wouldn't have hurt that guy if I had been a better protector and handling the situation myself."

Kaoru hugged Toji, "But what about you? You were doing so well! You were supposed to be the heir to Kamiya Kasshin Ryu! You were supposed to go through genpuku and then we were supposed to get married!"

The eleven year old boy took the face of her eight year old betrothed in his hands and gave her a quick and clumsy kiss. Their noses hurt from the bump, but they pretended to not notice. "I'm not giving up on genpuku or being your husband. I just can't be a student of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu until I've atoned for the shame of nearly killing someone with the style."

Kaoru looked at him wide-eyed. "How long will that be?"

Toji shrugged, "I dunno. Your Papa didn't say."

"You don't deserve this punishment," Kaoru whined.

Toji affectionately patted her cheek again. "And neither do you, just let me be a good fiance by letting me take care of this trouble for you." Kaoru looked down at her shuffling feet and blushed. "Besides, I have an idea for getting Kamiya Kasshin Ryu a better upcoming master than me." Kaoru shot her head up and looked at him quizzically. Toji was already lifting up the big jug of homemade sake. "Come on, or the food will burn."

The two children ran back inside. Koshijirō was trying to monitor the food but the look on his face told that he clearly had no idea what he was doing. "Oh good. The expert has returned," Koshijirō mused.

Toji got a little blue in the face and ran over the kitchen. He had learned that, without someone explaining exactly what to do, when it came to cooking to fear any of the Kamiya family in the kitchen. "You… didn't do anything to the food, did you?"

Koshijirō sighed a little annoyed. "Am I so incapable that I can't even watch the food cook?"

Kaoru grabbed her father's hand and pulling him to the dining table. "Papa! Don't ruin Toji's cooking!"

"Oh, such little faith from my own child," he grumbled but obeyed all the same.

Toji checked the food and, when he was assured the Koshijirō's watch had not magically spoiled the meal, he went over to the table and set the ceramic jug of sake down.

"Little Cutie and I made this for you, Mast- I mean, Mr. Kamiya."

"It's sake!" Kaoru cheered.

"Sake? What do you two know about sake?" Koshijirō questioned.

"I picked up the recipe talking with Mr. Fukui," Toji boasted as he began serving the food. "After dinner, you should try it. To celebrate the end of the war and going home to Edo."

"Should I now?" Koshijirō eyed the jug pretending to be suspicious.

When Toji finished serving the food, Koshijirō and Kaoru smiled the same cheerful smile and bowed their head to Toji. "Thank you for the food!" they announced in unison.

Toji ate at a much slower pace than Koshijirō and Kaoru so that he could speak politely. "Mr. Kamiya? I was wondering, did any of your missions take you up by Aizu?" he asked assertively.

"Aizu?" Koshijirō considered this for a moment. His work had almost always had him outside of towns and cities as a hand off to protect important items and people. A means of safe delivery so that Ishin Shishi spies and assassins didn't have to travel too far from their designated cities. It was both easy and dangerous work. He rarely fought, which he liked, but when he did it meant that a grander part of the war strategy had been compromised thus he could not be merciful, which he hated. "I can't say I've ever been in the city. Though I have seen it frequently from the road. Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering if you ever saw any of the onna-bugeisha?" Toji beamed.

"You mean Nakano Takeko's army, don't you? No, and I'm surprised you've even heard of them, Toji."

Kaoru looked confused. "Onna-bugeisha? You really haven't seen even one?"

Toji winked at Kaoru and smiled wryly before returning his attention back to her father. "They're wives and daughters of samurai that have decided to fight. There is supposed to be a small army of them in Aizu; they're following marshal histories like Empress Jingu, Tomoe Gozen, and Hojo Masako. We've been hearing about them from the peddlers. They're calling them female samurai."

"An impression of foreigners, they are warriors but not samurai," Koshijirō corrected. "And fanciful of an idea that they are, they are loyal to the shogunate. There are no onna-bugeisha in the Ishin Shishi that I am aware of."

Toji shrugged, "Which I don't get. I thought we were fighting for equality. Wouldn't breaking down the four classes also help in making women more equal?"

"The world is not so simple. Remember, there are only evil actions. The head of that army, Nakano Takeko, I can not claim to know her motives, but I do know she was born and raised in the bushi class as all onna-bugeisha. To her, I suspect she is simply protecting the lives and honor her family built. If there was no good coming from the shogunate then there would be nobody fighting for it." The table was quiet for a moment. "Why do the onna-bugeisha interest you so much, Toji?"

Toji swallowed trying to find his words. "Well, I was just thinking," Toji glanced sideways at Kaoru, "That even though they're not on our side, they are good examples of what women with swords can do."

Koshijirō did not miss the subtext. It had not been the first time this topic had crossed his own mind, particularly after Riko's death. He chuckled and teased, "But from what I understand the onna-bugeisha use naginata, not katana."

Toji gave a frustrated look to his former master. "B-but, it's still a weapon!"

Koshijirō laughed, "That it is."

"If the shogunate can bend their rules to fit women of the bushi, why can't the Ishin Shishi?" Toji's tone was almost a demand.

Koshijirō waved dismissively at Toji. "Now, now," he reached for the jug of home-made sake, uncorked it, and found an appropriate dish to drink from. "I understand you." He poured himself a cup then turned his attention to his daughter. "I care more for my role as a father than as the master of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. I would not be a good father if I allowed my only daughter and only child to pursue kenjutsu, a sword that kills. Otherwise, it could have been Kaoru that nearly killed that man yesterday." There was a silence. Koshijirō tasted a swallow of the sake and pondered the flavour for a moment. "It's simple, but very full-flavoured," he mused aloud.

"Papa?" Kaoru voice was small but had a note of assertiveness. "Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is a sword that gives life." Koshijirō smiled behind his cup as Kaoru continued. "The war is over. There is no need for a killing sword, but there is always need for a sword to protect. So, Kamiya Kasshin Ryu can never be without an heir. I will never let Kamiya Kasshin Ryu die with the times."

"You won't let it?"

"No! I won't let Kamiya Kasshin Ryu go!" she declared.

Koshijirō smiled and took another drink. Kaoru's tone reminded him of Riko. That way of sounding commanding when she's just insisting. He knew if he just said no that would be the end of it. "Toji? Is this part of your atonement?" The boy smiled and nodded. "Glad to hear it. I'd hate to think of seeing so much hard work go to waste." The children's eyes lit up. "I will still have some martial obligations when we return to Edo. I trust you'll help Kaoru anyway you can."

* * *

Chaotic only just began to describe Edo. The shogunate had surrendered but the fighting still seemed to be going on. The Kamiya family had not even made it home yet before the crowd had drawn them over to the latest spectacle.

"What's going on?" Toji asked a stranger in the crowd.

"Something about punishing those low-life Sekihoutai," the man answered.

Toji and Kaoru looked up at Koshijirō confused. "The Sekihoutai have been said to be spreading lies about our new government. Making promises on their behalf that could not possibly be kept and smearing their name." Koshijirō's adult height allowed him to see what the children could not, the head of Sagara Sozo put on display. 'What a waste.' "Come on, there's nothing for us here."

As the family tried to find its way out of the crowd Toji felt himself be knocked over. The boy fell on his stomach hard.

"Toji!" Kaoru yelled in concern. As Toji turned himself around, Kaoru stared daggers at what had knocked him over. "You apologize right now!" she demanded.

Toji's eyes met the face of another boy. It was hard to tell his age for he seemed younger by looking at his face but he was also bigger than Toji. Certainly the rougher sort with light brown eyes and messy brown hair that stuck straight up; kind of like a rooster. The boy look lost and disturbed.

Kaoru was about to yell at the boy some more, but Koshijirō hushed her by placing his hand on her shoulder. "Young man, is everything alright?"

The boy seemed to soften at first but then noticed that Koshijirō's eyes were not fixed on his face but on his red headband. The boy spat at Koshijirō's feet, "I don't need anything from Ishin Shishi bastards or shogunate scum!" With that, the boy ran off.

Kaoru fumed as she helped Toji up. "How rude!"

Koshijirō sighed, "Yes, well, I suspect there will be many orphans like him."

Pity suddenly struck Kaoru's voice, "Orphan?"

Koshijirō picked up Kaoru and kissed her forehead. "A sword that protects must be stern and kind. We cannot help those who do not want our help, but never close your heart to them."

Kaoru nodded. "I promise to do the school honor as its heir. I'll be an onna-bugeisha that protects the people."


	5. Horrors and Growing Up

**Author's Note: **Long one... I simply couldn't decide where to cut it. That's the last of the backlog for now. The rest of the chapters are still too rough of drafts to be sent to the betas for now.

Always many thanks to Scarred Sword Heart for all the hard work.

**Chapter 4**

Horrors and Growing Up

* * *

"Eiah!" Kaoru called in unison with the rest of the class as they all brought down their shinai. Despite only being eleven years old, Kaoru stood at the front of the rows. The age range of students her father had recruited spanned from seven to sixteen. Still, she was the best. What her tiny frame lacked in power she made up for in energy and a strong work ethic. Only new students seemed to begrudge her station in the class, and they were usually humbled by her own shinai if not one of her fellow students.

Most of them loved Kaoru, though, and tended to treat her as they would the other students; even to the point of not flinching from telling a dirty joke about farting or peeing when she was in earshot. She couldn't complain about it. She wanted to viewed as a serious student of kenjutsu and if that meant being treated like a boy in the dojo, she welcomed it.

"Enough!" Koshijirō called to announce the end of class. "Very good. Class sit!" The class obeyed his command with uniform discipline. Koshijirō stood from his place of observation. "Tell me why we practice the sword that protects life?"

The answer came as a declarative creed from all the students:

"To mould the mind and body,

To cultivate a vigorous spirit,

And through correct and rigid training,

To strive for improvement in the art;

To hold in esteem human courtesy and honor,

To associate with others with sincerity,

And to forever pursue the cultivation of oneself.

Thus will one be able to love the people,

To contribute to the development of culture,

To promote peace and prosperity among all,

And to achieve a world where all life is precious,

Where all sins of old are forgiven!"

Koshijirō smiled approvingly then looked to Kaoru. She bowed slightly and stood.

"Class stand!" she ordered. The class obeyed. "Bow to Master Kamiya!" The class faced Koshijirō and bowed while declaring a unison thanks to their master for the lesson.

Koshijirō bowed his head and returned to his cushion to observe his students knowing many of them would stick around to socialize. His students were now facing Kaoru.

"Are there any questions?" she asked even though she knew there weren't any. When the negative was announced, she dismissed the class. Then, she found a spot to practice her kata.

Her practice always spurred a couple of the students do a little extra work themselves but it never lasted long. Many stuck around to gossip about the rumours of displaced samurai turning to host underground kenjutsu tournaments. The most recent breath-baiting chatter being that funding for some of them was coming from some crime syndicate out of Hong Kong with some of these tournaments said to be death matches. It was such rumours that further fed hatred to practitioners of kenjutsu and made Koshijirō speculate that the gossip of the new Meiji government considering a nationwide sword ban may not soon be reality.

Two years ago, the new Meiji government had put out an edict forbidding the carrying of a sword and dressing as a member of the bushi class amongst those descended from farming and merchant families as an attempt to curb public unrest and street fights, but that effort was proving all too fruitless. The reaction only resulting in cocky samurai swinging swords with imagined authority and frantic movements to spend entire family fortunes on bushi surnames.

"Mr. Kamiya! Little Cutie! I brought dinner from work!" Toji called from outside as the students slowly filed out. Kaoru stopped in the middle of her kata to go and greet him.

'After all these years, he's still the only one to bring her such girlish excitement,' Koshijirō mused.

Kaoru leaped from the dojo steps to embrace Toji who barely managed to handle her impact without dropping their food. "How was work at the Akabeko?"

Toji laughed, "Miss Tae is a slave driver, and she's just a waitress. Here I thought the cook ran the restaurant! She even bosses her father around."

Kaoru blinked shocked, "But Tae seems so sweet!" Toji chuckled and affectionately patted Kaoru's cheek to assure her that he was not angry about anything. She giggled and grabbed the canvas bag from Toji. "So, what did you make up today?" She sniffed the bag. "Mm, it smells like tempura!" Having worked up a good appetite, she grabbed Toji by the hand and tried to lead him to the kitchen.

"Actually, Little Cutie, I have to go see my parents tonight," he explained slipping out of her grip. "I just wanted to drop your dinner off."

Kaoru blinked at him in surprise; Toji still lived with them usually only leaving to cook at the Akabeko after it opened last year. That's how it had been since they moved back to Edo, well now it was called Tokyo. He saw his family frequently, but it was usually planned visits, and he always brought Kaoru with him. She gave him a worried look fearing the worst of her future in-laws as her father had made little to no effort in hiding his suspicion of them. "Did something happen?"

Toji patted her cheek again. "No, no. Nothing bad has happened. I just haven't seen them for a few days, and I should really go a talk with them." Kaoru's worried face became stern. "Honest! I'll be back in time to cook breakfast."

Kaoru couldn't shake her suspicious feeling. Part of her wanted to object to him going, but she couldn't think of a good reason to do so. Luckily, her father came outside and seemed to save her. "Ah, Toji! Welcome home. Just five more days, are you excited?"

Kaoru beamed. "Right! You'll be fifteen in five days! I should give you more training tonight!"

Toji chuckled nervously. "You train me every night, though!"

"And I can still beat you! You need the training," Kaoru scolded.

"Training isn't just about beating poor Toji up, Kaoru," Koshijirō interjected. "Let him take a break for tonight."

"Fine!" Kaoru pouted for a moment until she thought of a compromise. "Papa! Why don't you train Toji for the next four days, then! He could really use the help of a master!" Koshijirō's smile fell and his aura blackened. Toji's face went a little blue. "Oh, come on! Surely you're not still mad about it! That jerk deser-phm!" Toji silenced her by clamping his hands over her mouth.

"Little Cutie, is just being emotional, sir!" Toji pleaded, "She's doesn't mean that. She says it because she cares so much about me."

Koshijirō sighed in resignation, "That she does." He paused waiting for more, but when nothing changed he walked over and gently took the bag from Kaoru before heading for the kitchen. "Ah, this tempura smells good." He left the two while he went to enjoy his meal.

When he was gone, Kaoru tore Toji's hand from her mouth. "Why don't you stand up to him?" she scolded.

Toji looked at her surprised. "Stand up to him? For what?"

"This whole situation! You live with us! Cook all our meals! Help clean around the house and dojo! You're family, not our servant! You're supposed to be my fiance, Toji! You're going to be considered an adult soon. This whole 'banishment from the school' thing has gone on long enough! You've more than atoned for…" She fell silent. "It's not fair," she growled.

Toji looked at her with pity. "What do you want me to do?" his question was sincere.

"I want you to act like a man! To tell him of all the wonderful things you do for us," she commanded. "If you could just get a little bit of training out of him then-"

"I could pass my genpuku?" his voice had a hint of annoyance in it. "Do you really have so little faith in my ability to pass; in your own teachings?"

Kaoru huffed, "Well, I can still beat you up, and you won't stand a chance against Papa if you can't even beat me."

Toji turned away and started to leave. "Yeah, well, who needs a sword these days, anyway," he growled over his shoulder. "I have to go see my family. Enjoy the food." He stormed out the gate, slamming it with an echoing clack as it closed.

Kaoru clenched her fists and stormed inside. Koshijirō had already set up a plate for her, but the sight of the food just made her angrier. "I don't want anything made by that idiot!" she yelled.

"Fine, more for me then," Koshijirō teased.

Kaoru sat across from her father fuming. Koshijirō seemed to happily eat not realizing the tension. He was almost done with his own plate when the anger came bursting out of Kaoru. "You're no help either! You say you like Toji and that he's so good, but you won't let him back into the school! If you really care about him you'd get over your stupid pride and help him out! But, noooo, you'll just turn your back on him!"

Koshijirō painfully pinched Kaoru's cheek and pulled. Malicious anger beamed from his eyes, "I am not the one to turn my back on him!"

Kaoru suddenly felt two feet shorter, but her rage was still present. "Ow! Some defender of the weak you are!" Kaoru felt her other cheek get pinched. "Ow! Jerk!"

"Brat! I raised you better than that!" Koshijirō berated. He pinched a little harder.

"Alright! I give! I give!" Kaoru pleaded.

Koshijirō's expression changed from fury to a gentle sternness as he quickly released his child. "Good, now stop pouting and eat," he returned to his own plate, "And make sure to apologize to Toji when you see him tomorrow."

Kaoru rubbed her sore face, "Yeah, yeah."

She, then, felt her father flick her temple with his thumb and middle finger. "An apprentice instructor should be respectful to the master, and a daughter should honour her father."

"A father shouldn't pinch his daughter's face off," Kaoru grumbled as she started eating.

Koshijirō smiled; his mood swings really were something to behold. "And here I thought pinching cheeks was supposed to make a girl's face pretty," he joked.

"Pinch to make the cheeks pink! Not purple!"

Koshijirō touched the tip of her nose with his chopsticks. "Then I did a good job." Kaoru rolled her eyes and decided to just stop talking to the old man. They ate in silence long enough for Koshijirō to finish what little was left on his plate. "Maekawa has requested my assistance for teaching at his dojo again tomorrow, but I have obligations to the police. I told him you would come and assist him."

Kaoru looked at her father suspiciously. "To clean his dojo again?"

"I'm sure he'd appreciate you doing that, but no, you're going to assist in instruction."

Kaoru blinked in surprise. "To assist in… Really!"

"He seems to have several new boys, you are to monitor these beginners," her father explained.

Kaoru squirmed with excitement. She bowed her head so low that she accidentally hit her head on the table. When she came back up, there was a red mark on her forehead but an expression pretending nothing had happened. Koshijirō's face said that he wasn't fooled. "I will do my best, Papa!"

* * *

Kaoru flung her bag over her shoulder and crept out of her room. She had learned when she was six that her father snored, thus, learned to wait to try to sneak around when she heard it. She usually would only sneak around to get little goodnight forehead kisses from Toji. This was her first attempt at sneaking out of the house.

'He did tell me to apologize, and Master Maekawa's dojo is closer to Toji's house," she rationalized. Tip-toe, tip-toe: she went past her father's room to the kitchen. Exiting through the kitchen didn't put her close to the gate, but it was less obvious. When she made it in the kitchen, she listened for more snoring. It was still there.

'He's going to be furious in the morning,' she thought. 'Probably worried too. He may skip out on work.' This thought made her pause. She was young but not dumb. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu only had six students counting herself. Her father said he felt obliged to the community and that's why he helped the police, but she also saw the purse of yen he brought home every time he went to help.

'I know!' She slipped over to the newspaper on the table and tore off a blank strip off. Then, grabbing a piece of charcoal she wrote, 'Need some girl time. Having breakfast at the Akabeko with Tae before class. Will be home after I'm done at Master Maekawa's. -Kaoru'

Kaoru felt confident that using the words 'girl time' would insure that her father wouldn't ask any questions. She didn't understand why those words clammed him up so bad, but she wouldn't complain. She also trusted Tae to be smart enough to follow the lie should her father actually suspect something. It was full-proof in her mind.

So, she left the note on the kitchen table and slid out the door. Sprinting from shadow to shadow, Kaoru ran for the gate. It was silent. She held her breath when pulling out the key. The lock made an agonizingly loud click. 'Calm down, it's not that loud,' she assured herself as she opened the gate. The street outside was dark and deserted. She closed the gate behind her. Again, the lock made a loud click, but still, there was no other disturbance.

'I made it!' Her withheld breath was released.

A new sort of energy she had never felt before drove her steps. She had successfully sneaked out of her father's home – past the great Kamiya Koshijirō. The silence of the street as she ran though felt like awe. Her destination wasn't far; less than a kilometer, really. Had the house not been so grand, she may have ran past it in her excitement. She stopped outside the gate and pondered which room she would need to go to. She tested the gate with a light pull; locked. Kaoru was not deterred, though.

The wall around the property was low. Kaoru ran as far opposite of it as she could and turned to run straight at it. Her jump almost didn't make it, but her hand grabbed the edge as she smacked into the side hard. 'Please don't leave a mark,' she pleaded to herself as she climbed. When she made it on top of the wall, she looked around. 'Did anyone notice me?' The light of a lantern came on in the house. 'Shoot! They did!'

Kaoru jumped off the wall and ran to take cover behind some rice barrels. It would seem she was fast enough, for the shoji slid open shortly after. "Is someone there?" a male voice called out. It didn't seem to be a member of the Masumoto family with the katana he wore at his hip. That wasn't surprising. The Masumoto's frequently had scary house guests. People her father told her she should avoid, even at Toji's family house; one of the bits of advice she would not ignore.

The man didn't seem too bothered, or maybe he decided looking around the yard was too much of a bother; either way, he went back inside and snuffed out his lantern.

Kaoru sat there and pondered. She'd been in the house before, but the layout was still fuzzy. 'Maybe I can find him with kenki,' she thought. So, she folded her legs and concentrated, but she felt nothing. 'Guess I'm not that good yet. Well, got no other choice but to look with my eyes.'

Kaoru did her best to be cat-like in her prowling of the estate. She knew the layout well enough to know that all the bedrooms were in the back. The master bedroom was easy to determine, so she avoided it. That left four other rooms. One by one, Kaoru opened the shoji a crack and peeked in. There was someone in each room, more scary house guests, it would seem. Why were so many here tonight? Toji was in the room closest to the master suite, meaning the last one she checked. 'Idiot, of course he'd be in the room next to his parents.'

She opened the shoji wide enough to creep in and turned around to close it behind her. When she turned back to face Toji's futon her eyes were met with a shinai pointed right at her nose. She put her hands up in a placating fashion. "Now now, you wouldn't want to hurt me, would you?" she whispered.

"Little Cutie?" Toji lowered the shinai and stared at her stunned. "What are you doing here?"

Kaoru blushed and twiddled her fingers. "Well, um, you know what they say," she laughed nervously, "Couples shouldn't go to bed angry."

Toji creased his brow. "How…?"

"Hey, I came to apologize," she scolded, "Are you so mad that you're not happy to see me?"

Toji's face soften but the surprise was still ever-present. "N-no. It's not that. It's just… does your father know you're here?"

Kaoru stuck her tongue out at the thought. "No, and he doesn't need to know."

"He'll notice that you're gone."

She waved dismissively. "Taken care of. There's nothing to worry about." She noted that his face was still quite shocked. "Oh, come on. I'm stealing into your bedroom, it's supposed to be romantic!" her voice was enthused if still a whisper.

Toji couldn't help be snicker a little, "The man is supposed to steal into the woman's room, Little Cutie."

Kaoru face turned a little redder but she remained assertive. "Well, maybe I got tired of waiting for you!"

Toji laughed, "So, it's like a reversed yobai, but I don't think I ever gave you my permission to come here."

Kaoru's face was a tomato at this point. "Well… do I have your permission?"

Toji stopped his laughter and blushed himself as he was now forgetting to blink at Kaoru.

"Wha-... what?" Kaoru hid her face in her palms to hide her flush, but it had reached past her neck at this point. "

"Are you serious? Little Cutie, do you know what you're asking?"

Kaoru slammed her fist on her knees. "Of course! I'm asking you to forgive me for being so mean earlier, and if I can stay the night here with you!"

Toji started to sweat and his eyes seemed to be on Kaoru but not on her eyes. "And?" he asked.

The look Toji was giving her confused Kaoru. She had never seen it before. He looked shocked, confused, nervous, stiff, and something else she couldn't grasp. It was like he was seeing something he wanted but her mind couldn't fathom what that was. The look scared her a bit. "And what? Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" Toji threw the blanket off his legs and sat on his knees. "Kaoru," his face became very serious and he was leaning towards her, "Tell me you know what happens with a yobai. Please, tell me you know."

Toji's serious demeanour was all the more confusing to Kaoru. She had thought he'd be excited. Aren't boys supposed to be excited about this kind of thing? "Sure," she asserted. She thought of all that was mentioned of the action ever said around her. True, nobody had ever explained it to her directly, but she felt that, based off of what she heard older boys and girls say that, she knew. "A man sneaks into a woman's bedroom, they share a futon, and they decide that because they like the way the other person sleeps that their ready to get married." Toji comically fell to his side. "What?" she asked. "That's right, isn't it?"

Toji sat back up. He could not hide the look of disappointment on his face as he held his forehead in his hand. "No, Little Cutie, that's not right." He sighed and mumbled, "You are still just a kid."

Kaoru's face twisted in anger. "Hey!"

Toji shushed her sweetly, "Little Cutie, don't be so loud. Else we'll wake everyone."

Kaoru calmed but was still fuming. "Don't insult me, then!"

"I didn't say it as an insult," he assured. "I was just, well, oh what's the word! Sad, maybe? Well, sad that you don't seem to know everything about being an adult yet."

Kaoru huffed, "Well, nobody will tell me. Who told you these things?"

Toji gave a thoughtful look to the question. "Who told me?" He never really had an equivalent of a sit down talk about this subject. He hit puberty early when he was still a student of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu.

He remembered whenever he tried to address it with Koshijirō, his old master would make him sleep outside in a haystack and would yell whenever he got 'too close' to Kaoru. So, he was really no help. Eventually, Koshijirō did tell him to talk to the village doctor. Higashiyama had just laughed and told him he was turning into a man. The doctor was nice enough to explain he would get urges around women that he should suppress to make sure he honoured his betrothal. After that, it became about just listening to dirty jokes from older boys or seeing the occasional erotic ukiyo-e painting for him to put most of it together himself. "Well, it's more that it just, well, came to me."

Kaoru stiffened. "But, you've never done it yourself."

Toji felt a chill run through him. "Of course not!"

"So how do you know that you're right?" she felt proud of her logic. "Maybe I'm right and you're wrong?"

Toji's face turned a deeper shade of crimson. "I know you're not right, because there's… something that I'm waiting for. I'm waiting for you to become an adult. I… there's something I want to do to you… but we both have to be adults."

"Do to me?" Kaoru put emphasis on the word to express her confusion. "What could you possibly want to do 'to' me?"

Toji swallowed and looked down at his lap, and, after a couple of seconds, he took his pillow and put it in his lap. "Maybe you should leave," he suggested.

Kaoru felt hurt. Toji was always so affectionate. She couldn't imagine him wanting to do anything bad to her. A resolve hit her; she had risked being in so much trouble to be here, and she wasn't leaving now.

Kaoru opened her pack and pulled out her sleeping yukata. "I'm staying!" she declared. Toji looked shocked and about ready to protest, but Kaoru cut him off. "I'm not some waif, Toji! I am the heir to Kamiya Kasshin Ryu! I can take care of myself and make my own decisions. So, I don't know what this thing you want to do to me is, but I know you'd never want to do anything that would hurt me. So it can't be all bad. I'll decide if I'm ready for it!"

"Kaoru," Toji pleaded, "Are you sure?"

"No, but that's because I don't know what it is," she explained. "So, just tell me what this something is, and then, I'll decide." Kaoru leaned forward onto her hands and crawled over to the futon. "Just tell me what I need to do." Toji's head became a strawberry, and he fell back to catch his, now, bloody nose. Kaoru blinked at him in confusion, "Um, Toji?"

The teen-aged boy seemed to be internally panicking. His eyes a mix of excitement and fear while his lips were curled into a cautious smile. It took a minute, and Kaoru poking his ribs a couple of times with her finger, but the fourteen year old found his resolve. He quickly cleaned his face and sat up. "Okay, I'll explain it!" He took a deep breath. "Okay, Kaoru, I want to be inside you."

Kaoru's brain, immediately, had her picturing Toji trying to, literally, jump down her throat. "Inside me? Like you want me to eat you?"

"Well, maybe at first!" he laughed but silenced at seeing Kaoru's horrified face. "Sorry, no, it's just innuendo!" He folded his arms and pondered. "Um, maybe if I explained it in steps. Well, first, we'll have to be naked."

Kaoru blushed. She had vague memories of bathing with Toji as children, but in all recent memory, her father had told her she shouldn't let any male see her naked. She wondered if this thing Toji wanted to do to her was the reason why.

"Well, maybe, that's not first, but eventually," Toji continued. "It'd would probably be better if we started with kissing."

"Like when kissing each other goodnight?" Kaoru smiled, liking that idea. Toji and her had kissed a few times – quick, chaste kisses usually stolen when her father wasn't around. She loved kissing and had figured she would kiss him a lot tonight, but hadn't figured that there was more beyond that.

"Yeah, but there will be more of it," Toji felt encouraged seeing Kaoru react so well. "Did you want to try that much out?"

Kaoru nodded, and Toji cupped her face with his hands. When he kissed her, though, it wasn't a kiss like what she had grown used to. It was longer and Kaoru found that Toji's breath tickled her. He also seemed more settled as if he was waiting for something. Kaoru had started with her eyes closed but opened them; curious if anything else was going to happen. It wasn't bad: in fact, if doing this naked was all he wanted she figured that would be fine. Toji's earlier assertion didn't sound like this, however, and pondering the mystery of it made her anxious.

As if the thought had cued something, Kaoru felt Toji's mouth open and his tongue slide up against her lips. The gesture was so foreign to her that she broke the kiss. Toji's face fell in a slight panic, "Sorry, was that too much?"

"Were… you trying to stick your tongue in my mouth?" Kaoru asked a little freaked out, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Toji nodded nervously. "Is that what you meant by wanting to be inside me?" There was a slight squeak in Kaoru's voice as fearful chills crawled over her skin.

Toji's face paled, and he scratched the back of his head. "Um, well, no. That's just how adults kiss, Little Cutie. Adults use their tongues too."

"I've never seen that!" Kaoru objected.

"It's the kind of kiss you're suppose to do in situations like this," Toji tried to explain. "Did you not like it?"

"No! It's too weird!"

Not feeling deterred, Toji affectionately patted her cheek. "All right then, no kissing with tongues. Got it!" He leaned in to kiss her again, but Kaoru ducked out of the way. Toji ended up falling face first into the futon mat. When he came up his expression was dejected. "Do you not want to kiss any more?"

Kaoru shook her head. "Maybe you should explain the rest to me first. I don't want any other surprises like that tongue thing."

Toji sat up trying to discern what he should say next. "I guess I can understand that." He rested his chin between his thumb and index finger. "Well, there's going to be some more different kinds of kissing. Sometimes short. Sometimes long. My mouth can be open and so can yours."

"Okay, but don't use your tongue any more." She still didn't quite believe that adults did that. Kaoru fiddled with her clothes a little taking all this in. "Do girls stick their tongues in boys mouths?"

"Well, I've only ever kissed you, but I wouldn't have any problem if you stuck your tongue in my mouth," Toji explained with a way-too-innocent smile. He decided to continue in his explanation. Apparently, that little bit of kissing had made him feel more at ease to talk about it. "We'll be touching each other too."

"Where?"

"Wherever we want. You can touch my hair, my chest, my back, my legs, my stomach, my butt-"

Kaoru laughed, "Your butt? Why would I want to touch your butt?"

Toji's eye twitched feeling a little frustrated, "I'm just saying you can if you want to!"

Kaoru laughed a bit longer. The idea of wanting to touch a boy's butt just sounded so ludicrous to her. She did calm herself though and reached over to touch Toji's neatly kept, shoulder length, black hair. His annoyed face went away when she did. She rubbed the strands between her fingers; his hair felt soft and fine. "I have always wanted to touch your hair like this," she commented.

"You can touch it whenever you want to, Little Cutie," he cooed.

"And, where do you want to touch me?" she asked.

Toji blushed, "Well, you know that I like touching your face." Toji patted Kaoru's cheek, again, with his usual affection. "I wouldn't mind touching your hair either," he waited a moment before gently grabbing her ponytail and curling the hair between his fingers. He ran his hand up until reached the ribbon and undid it. Kaoru had a giggle as his hands fumbled at untying the bow. "I'd honestly like to touch you at all sort of places."

"Well," Kaoru said growing a little impatient. "Where do you want to touch most?"

Toji's sweat returned and his eyes fell. "Um, your chest?" He was asking permission.

Kaoru's hands came to her chest in a protective manner. Over the past year, her breasts had started to bud. They were just little bumps right now. She had pointed them out to Tae being one of the only older girls she knew, and Kaoru had wondered if she should start binding them. Tae had laughed at her and told her that she had a long way to go before worrying about it. "Um, they're not very… big."

Toji shrugged. "That's fine, besides they'll get bigger soon. I'd also like to kiss your chest."

That feeling of discomfort came again. Kaoru decided to change the topic away from her chest. "Are there other places you want to kiss?"

Toji sensed her discomfort and shifted himself. "Well, it's the same idea as with touching each other. We can kiss wherever we want too."

Kaoru felt as if she never wanted to take her clothes off again. This idea of anyone touching and kissing her wherever they wanted was so unsettling. Part of her wanted to feel better because it was Toji, and she knew Toji would never do anything to hurt her, but the fact that it was Toji, of all people, that wanted to do such strange and foreign things to her made the situation so much worse. Her voice was weak, "Is there more?"

Toji's eyes saddened at seeing her distress. All sexual desire was gone from him in seeing her like that. "Little Cutie, we don't have to do anything. We can just go to sleep," he said as he reached for a blanket.

"I'd like that," Kaoru whispered. Toji went to prepare a second futon for Kaoru while she found a screen to change behind. The air felt heavy and the tension uncomfortable. Kaoru could not recall a time when she felt so small, so infantile. "Toji?" she asked pulling out of her day clothes. There was a patient hum for acknowledgement but no actual words. "Why do grown ups want to do such things?"

"You shouldn't continue talking about things that upset you," Toji tried to sound scolding but his amusement just made him sound a little mocking.

"Don't tease me!" she snapped as she slid on her night clothes and started braiding her hair.

"I really don't know how to explain it, Little Cutie. It's just that somewhere I got the idea that it would feel good," he was really trying to comfort her more than explain. "I also like the idea of you being so close to me that I have nothing to hide. I guess that doesn't make any sense. Please, we'll just forget about it until after we're married."

'So close that you have nothing to hide.'

With her braid neatly tied, Kaoru stepped back out into the open wearing her white sleeping yukata. The floor was, now, occupied with a second futon mat completely made up for her next to Toji's. He was sitting up waiting for her with a kind smile that made all of her previous discomfort melt away. Kaoru smiled to herself, 'Fine. So maybe I'm not that grown up yet, but at least, I'll always have Toji to face all the weird and scary parts of it with me.' Kaoru walked over to Toji and knelt down by his side. "You know, I'm really excited to grow up."

Toji patted her cheek affectionately. "Is that right?" he mused. Kaoru leaned in and kissed her fiance. The kiss was long and loving yet still chaste and innocent – her new kind of favourite kiss. Toji hummed pleasantly when the kiss ended. "Goodnight, Little Cutie."

The two laid down together on the futon. For being their first time sharing a bed, they found comfortable places very naturally. Kaoru seemed to be the perfect size to simply use the crook of Toji's shoulder as a pillow and not cause his arm any discomfort. Her left arm curled to her chest while her right rested on his belly. So warm she felt with one of his arms around her shoulders while his free hand held the hand she rested on his stomach. For Kaoru, it was so perfect that she could think of nothing with the power to spoil it.

Sleep did not come until much later in the night. Adrenaline, giggling, and the occasional sweet kiss forced weariness away from their minds until the stars shared the sky with the purple colour the comes around the hour before dawn. These moments, now, were the moments Kaoru was looking for when she had first sneaked out of her home.

* * *

"Toji!" Nami, his mother, called with a sleepy luster. "Sweetling, are you still asleep?" She pulled at her crow's feet as her attendant tied her greying hair back into a glamorous shimada mage with a large jade comb. She was quite used to having all the men of the house come and pay their morning respects to her as the matriarch of the house before she finished dressing. She tsked, "I swear! Has Koshijirō taught my boy no manners?"

"I am sure Milady's son will be along soon," the attendant tried to reassure. "He is your son, and a very respectful boy."

Nami sighed her bitter respite away. The moment her baby boy had told her that he'd rather continue living with the Kamiya family when they returned four years ago was heartbreaking; almost as bad as when his brother went to America, and the fact that he chose it when Koshijirō was refusing to teach him kenjutsu was insulting. The final twist of the wrist was seeing how undignified of a lady Koshijirō had turned his once adorable little Kaoru into. The girl could clean up well enough, but she had demonstrated on more than one occasion that the only thing she seemed to have gotten from her mother was her looks.

'Koshijirō's temper, manners, arrogance, and abilities with Riko's beauty: at least she doesn't have her mother's manipulative wit. My poor Toji wouldn't stand a chance.' Nami took a moment to calm herself and remind herself over and over. 'As long as Toji's happy, and as unseemly as she can sometimes be, Kaoru still seems to be a good girl. At least our grandchildren seem fond of their future aunt.'

Her attendant finished with her grooming duties. "Shall I go awaken your son?"

"No, I will attend to my own son." Nami stood rather gracefully and left her attendant to clean up. She knocked at the inner shoji door from the hallway. No answer. "Toji! You've slept past breakfast! Is something wrong?" Her calls were answered with silence. Nami was feeling exasperated, "Toji, I'm coming in."

When Nami opened the door, she could not stifle the giggle that bubbled to her lips. There, snuggled adorably together, was her youngest son with his fiance. The sight was so cute that all her earlier frustrations about the Kamiya family were temporarily lifted. Still, they could not be allowed to lie abed for the whole morning. "Come now, both of you," she teased. "It's time to get up."

Nami stepped over to the foot of the futon and pulled the blanket away. What she saw made her hand clap over her mouth in shock. "Toji! Kaoru!" she screamed, "What did you do?"

The two sleeping youngsters awoke with a start. Panic and confusion beset the room as Nami yelled at the children for their indecency.

"Mother!" Toji desperately tried to explain. "It's not what you think! We were just sleeping!"

"Sleeping? Toji, her maiden's blood is smeared all over the mattress!" Nami accused.

Toji creased his brow at the term. "Maiden's blood?"

Kaoru screamed in horror. "Oh god! Toji, I'm bleeding!"

* * *

Kaoru had never felt so ashamed, angry, and dirty in her life. Both her and Toji ended up learning things about female puberty that neither of them ever wished to know. Once Nami had realized that the blood stain was not from her maidenhead but simply her first period, the woman would not stop laughing at the situation.

Nami was kind enough to spend the rest of the morning explaining to Kaoru the more delicate details as well as give her a quick tutorial on making the special underwear she'd have to wear, an uma, for one week every month. The uma was thick and uncomfortable, and the name would never allow her to look at horses the same again.

Toji had bolted for work with a green face as soon as he realized what was going on. She was late for getting to Maekawa's dojo, and teaching the beginner's, a task she had been thrilled to do yesterday, was made miserable by the bloated feeling in her stomach and over caution that her uma wouldn't hold up until she got home. The yukata she slept in was most certainly ruined by the set in stain. Finally, to top it off, Gendo and Nami had insisted they were going over to see Koshijirō to talk to him about how irresponsible it was for him to be not have talked to his daughter about her 'developmental needs' by now. Meaning her father would now know about her sneaking out to stay with Toji.

She wanted to go hideout with Tae. Tae would have sympathy for her. That meant going to the Akabeko though, and she was too disgusted with herself to face Toji. So, she just went home, failed miserably at attempting to wash out her yukata, thus ripped it into strips and made enough umas to last herself a few years she speculated.

When she finished, it was only the late afternoon. She busied herself with imaginary chores such as sweeping a clean porch and polishing new bokken.

Toji seemed to beat Koshijirō home with Tae nipping his heels. Kaoru had never been so happy to see her female friend.

"Little Kaoru!" Tae called from the gate. Toji still looked green in the face thus only bowed in greeting before making his way to the kitchen to start an early dinner. Tae shook her head at the boy. "Men! Honestly, I've seen him stick his hand up a dead goose butt to pull out the giblets, but he sees a little blood from a perfectly natural female bodily function and he acts like he witnessed an amputation."

Kaoru swallowed and her face turned red. "Tae… you know then?"

Tae walked up to Kaoru and patted her on the shoulder. "Toji, well, in so many words, he told me. Don't worry too much about it, little Kaoru. Every girl's first period is embarrassing."

'He is so getting a beat down for this!' Kaoru eyed the older girl suspiciously. "Yeah? Did you gross out your fiance while his mother accused you of being a hussy only to come home to a dad that likes to show his anger with bokken?"

Tae felt herself break out into a cold sweat. "Well, no, but," she blushed as she contemplated telling the story. Tae looked around the yard before deciding to lead Kaoru to her room. They sat on close cushions and Tae spoke in whispers. "My first one, I was wearing my favorite yellow kimono, but it had been raining and was very muddy. To not get any mud on it, I hitched up the skirt when I went out with my family to visit with some of the restaurant's original investors. Well, we get there, I bow, and their little boy starts laughing.

You got an arrow on your butt! He says. Sure enough, because I had hitched up my skirt for the walk when I let it down the red stain looked like a dotted line with an arrow pointing right at my butt! And, of course, nobody had a way for me to cover it; so I had to walk home in this bright yellow kimono with a red arrow pointing at my butt!"

Kaoru couldn't help herself as she pictured the description. Laughter flowed from her like a font. "You got an arrow on your butt!" she squealed.

"Kaoru!" Tae pleaded, "I didn't tell you that so you could laugh at me!"

"Sorry!" Kaoru was wiping a tear from her eye. "I still think I win in the contest of humiliation here, but your story did help me feel better. At least, I didn't have an arrow on my butt on top of it all."

Tae cupped her cheeks in her own hands and closed her eyes as if physically trying to repress the memory. "You can be so mean, Kaoru," the older girl whined.

"Give me a break! When Papa comes home I'm going to end up shackled by the ankles to a post being forced to hold up twenty kilograms in water buckets for the whole night," Kaoru explained before returning to laughing loudly.

"Actually, it'll be thirty kilograms," came a deep male voice seething in calm rage. Kaoru froze in horror. "Oh, and with no dinner," the voice added.

Kaoru jumped to her feet. "Papa! You see, it was like this!" Kaoru desperately tried to explain.

"Now, Kaoru!" Koshijirō yelled.

Kaoru whimpered as a shiver went up her spine. "Y-yes sir!" Kaoru stumbled out the door folding her arms over the top of her head as if bracing for an inevitable bokken to come down on her head. Once out of her father's sight, she took her time finding the buckets and crossbar that might as well be her yoke. It didn't take long before she could hear her father yelling at Toji.

The sound of her father taking his anger out so unjustly sparked a rage of her own. She felt the urge to go and scream at the old man. The whole thing was her idea. What was he supposed to do? Send her away to walk through the Tokyo streets at midnight again? Her temper flared, and she found a new courage. In that moment, she could perfectly envision every injustice her old man had ever conceived, and it gave her strength.

She braced the empty buckets and crossbar against her shoulders and stormed out of the storehouse. The dining room double shoji was wide open and stepping inside Kaoru could perfectly see her father yelling at her fiance as he cooked in the kitchen. "Papa!" she warned, "Don't you dare raise your voice like that to my sweet Toji!"

Koshijirō turned around. His eyes were wide with shock and anger. "Kaoru-"

"Toji did nothing wrong! He was an honourable man to me last night and treated me with absolute respect! I sneaked out of the house! I lied about spending the morning with Tae, and I was the one that climbed into his futon when he had even set out a separate one for me!" she screamed. "You want to punish me! Fine! Bring it on! But stop blaming Toji for my mistakes!"

Hope rose in Kaoru's throat as Koshijirō's expression softened to a proud smile. "Kaoru," he murmured with a proud tear in his eye.

Kaoru's eyes glassed over. Did it work? Had she really reached him? "Papa?" she whispered.

"Make that weight fifty kilos and give me twenty squat thrusts every half hour," he ordered happily.

Kaoru fell over planting her nose firmly against the floor mat. "Yes sir," she mumbled from the floor. Still, she did feel a sense of victory and so got up and vigorously set to her task.

Koshijirō and Toji sat on the back porch and watched Kaoru work as they ate. Both men felt a sense of pride as they watched her. "Your daughter is truly amazing, sir," Toji commented sipping his miso.

"I was worried," Koshijirō lamented.

"Sir?"

"I had thought that Riko's influence had been completely bisected from Kaoru. Everyone only ever sees me when they look at her, despite that physically she looks more like her mother. When my wife died, I had made a wish that her spirit would live on in Kaoru, but always she would show my temper, the unruliness of my youth, dedication to my art and my ideals. Looking into Kaoru's eyes, I saw myself only, and mourned that it seemed Riko's spirit was truly gone," Koshijirō took in a deep breath, "But that fire she showed now. That was Riko. The same look, the same spirit I saw in Kaoru back there was a perfect match for how Riko was the last time I saw her alive."

Toji looked into his bowl sadly. "I admit, my memories of Mrs. Kamiya are fewer than I'd like. I was seven when she left us, and I can't imagine how scarce Little Cutie's memory has gotten of her. Still, I think Little Cutie does work hard to keep those few memories alive. Last night, as she was falling asleep, she started singing that song your wife taught her. Like a sad song of prayer, and when I was helping her pack this morning, I noticed that she kept dried jasmine flowers in her bag. Mrs. Kamiya's favourite, right?" Toji paid no notice to the quiet happiness was starting to well in Koshijirō's eyes. "I'm sure there's other things to."

Koshijirō clapped his hand on Toji's head and mussed his hair. "You are much too serious," Koshijirō smiles rather wolfishly. "And lazy."

"Sir?"

"Genpuku is in four days. Have you practiced at all today?"

Toji's eyes lit up hopefully. "Master? Are you going to train me?"

Koshijirō quirked his brow. "No, because you aren't my student. My daughter's lessons to you a rough, but that doesn't mean you haven't been improving. Besides, you can practice on your own. Now, get to work."

"Oh right," the response was melancholy and Koshijirō did not fail to notice that.

"Papa!" Kaoru called. "Can I please have a break?"

"No!" the kenjutsu master held firm.

"But Papa!"

"Kaoru, no whining!"

"But Papa," there was a pause. "Please, don't make me say it!" The two men only felt confused and only looked at Kaoru expectantly. Kaoru's face was flush from the weight and embarrassment. She murmured something, but neither Koshijirō or Toji heard it.

"No breaks for any reason, Kaoru!" her father affirmed.

Kaoru's face turned into a tomato. "But Papa, I need to change my uma!" she screamed so loud that all colour fell from her as she was sure all of Tokyo heard her decree.

The only things she could see was the sickly green colour of Toji's face and the horrified blue of Koshijirō's. Her father's voice was shaky and lacking all of its usual certainty, "G-go take a break, Kaoru." This was definitely a change the family was not looking forward to adjusting to.

* * *

Kaoru could not remember the last time she felt this excited. All of her meditations had completely failed, and she had so much energy that not even doubling her exercises slowed her down. She climbed up on top of the gate and anxiously waited.

"You seem to be feeling better now," her father mused coming out of the dojo seeing her. "Your… cramps all gone?"

Kaoru threw a shingle at him for bringing up her menstrual cycle. He dodged it easily enough, but he was obviously uncomfortable with the topic still after these four days. His discomfort didn't make getting used to it any easier for Kaoru. "Don't talk about me like I'm diseased!" she lambasted.

She went back to focusing on the setting sun. "Toji's late," she grumbled.

"I'm sure he's fine. It is his birthday. He probably is out celebrating," her father reasoned.

"When he's got his genpuku? No way! I've been training him for this since we moved to Tokyo!" Kaoru continued to stare off into the setting sun while twitching her leg anxiously from her crossed-leg sitting position.

"Well, aren't you being selfish," Koshijirō teased. "Come now, you should let him enjoy this day without feeling any pressure."

Kaoru sneered at her father. "You just don't want to talk with Gendo and Nami about wedding plans."

Koshijirō huffed at the mention of the Masumoto's. "You're still too young for that!"

"Gendo married Nami when she was twelve," Kaoru mused.

"We are not the Masumoto's!"

"No, but I soon will be," Kaoru gave her father a cheeky smile.

Koshijirō's expression blackened, and he seethed in disgust at the name of Masumoto Kaoru. His expression immediately lightened when an idea struck him. "The Masumoto's have four other sons to continue the name, maybe Toji should consider becoming Kamiya Toji."

"Mm? Kamiya Toji?" the thought was pleasantly distracting. "Are you going to bring that up at the wedding arrangements?"

"Yes, I think I will, that and state that you can't marry until you, at least, master Kamiya Kasshin Ryu!" he held his chin and smiled triumphantly.

"Master?" Kaoru eyes lit up. "How much longer do you think I've got?"

"Who knows?"

Kaoru nearly fell off the roof. "You! You should know!" Her father seemed to be ignoring her, having magically lost himself in pontificating his babbling about non-zen thought in what it means to be a master. Kaoru growled in loud annoyance. "You are such a brat!"

Looking back out to the horizon Kaoru's eye was caught by a growing plume of black smoke from the east. "Hm?" Kaoru stood up and squinted out in the direction. "Isn't that?" The smoke continued to grow exponentially, and the horrible realization came to her. "Papa! Someone's house is on fire!"

Kaoru did not wait for her father to react to her. She jumped from the gate and ran for the fire praying as she ran that no one was hurt. It did not take but a second for Koshijirō to catch up with her. The source of the smoke was only a couple minutes run for them, but when the source became apparent, horror instilled deep to chills their hearts. The Masumoto estate.

"Toji!" Kaoru shrieked.

The two Kamiya's leaped over the wall to the estate as if it were not there; determination overcame normal limitations. The yard was chaos, as servant and hoodlum alike ran through it in a combined symphony of terror and blood lust. Many were looting what they could while others clawed at the chained gate for desperate escape.

Kaoru whipped out her shinai and started screamingly pleading for Toji, but her voice was just more noise in the chaos.

"Kaoru! Calm yourself!" her father ordered. "Stay close to me!"

Having weapons drawn, they quickly became targets of the men taking joy in the fire. They all appeared to be yakuza thugs: many wielded wakizashi and some clubs. The calmer ones all had katana.

They attacked in numbers, some three at a time, most aiming for Koshijirō. Kaoru kept to her father's back fending off those with the foresight to flank. As they did not expect a lot of resistance from a single man and a girl armed with bamboo; many were in for a rude awakening.

Koshijirō subdued most with a single hit, and Kaoru's ability kept a stride beyond that of her attackers.

Eventually, the attackers piddled to none, and Koshijirō turned his attention to the gate. "If you desire safety you had better move!" he yelled to the crowd blocking the gate. Having seen his capabilities against the yakuza the small crowd moved. Koshijirō brought the hilt of his bokken down with such a tremendous force that the chain snapped. The gate was open. The people nearly trampled each other in their desperation to rush out.

Kaoru was ahead of her father in rushing the door. "Kaoru! It's too dangerous in there! You stay out here!" but his words fell on deaf ears as Kaoru kicked the door in and ran inside. "Kaoru!" Koshijirō tried to stop his daughter by running in after her, but his height worked against him as smoke and flame clouded his view. "Kaoru! Kaoru!"

Kaoru, herself, was too consumed by the chaos of the burning building around her and her determination to find Toji. She kicked in every shoji calling his name. Thankfully, it did not take long for her to find what she was looking for, but that was the only thing to be thankful for.

In the center of the house, in the very sitting room Kaoru had been told the arrangement of her marriage to Toji had been finalized, over twenty bodies laid dead in a circle pooled in blood. Gendo. Nami. All of the Masumoto family; aunts & uncles, brothers & wives, nieces & nephews, and cousins all. People Kaoru had known her whole life, and family she would never know.

The stench of burning flesh filled the air mixed with the shit stench of disembowelment. Horror seemingly forever frozen on the faces of the victims. If not for what stood in the middle the circle, Kaoru would have lost herself and retched.

In the middle stood a tall burly man wielding a Chinese longsword, holding Toji off his feet by the base of his jaw. Toji was limp and beaten, but his eye did catch Kaoru. He reached for her weakly.

The burly man turned his head to see Kaoru. When he spoke his voice was deep and lyrical. "Hm? What's this? Did I miss one? Did I miss a mouse amongst the rats?" The man looked Kaoru up and down.

Kaoru stiffen herself and readied to attack. "You let my fiance go!" she demanded.

"Fiance?" The burly man looked back at Toji then back to Kaoru. "Do not tell me this little creature is the tanooki that cut out my master's tongue?" The burly man broke into a boisterous laugh. "That's rich! Well, since you're here I can just tell you now, instead of going out of my way." The man pulled out a small blade. "My master remembers your lie, little girl. He feels you should be punished for what you did. Punished with the same suffering he has endured, but he is not unreasonable. The Masumoto family wants to share in your punishment?" The burly man forces Toji's mouth open and slid his tongue out.

"Stop it!" Kaoru screamed.

"So be it!" Down Toji's throat the blade went to efficiently extract his tongue.

The blood-gurgling scream Toji made cooled Kaoru's skin to ice and boiled her blood. She screamed in emotional pain and rage as she leaped at the man. Her opponent immediately dropped Toji and brought his foot up to meet her stomach.

All air left Kaoru's lungs and her world started turning black. She already breathed in too much smoke, but her will would not allow her to go down without landing a single hit. She felt the man's foot begin to pull away. He was fleeing. She also heard to floor creaking loudly as he shifted his heavy weight. Kaoru brought her shinai to hook behind his raised knee and stuck up guiding the leg to the left. The added momentum to his pivot sent the large man crashing to his right. His massive weight crashing into the floor broke what was left of the wood's weakening resistance.

The crash kicked up a lot of debris and the vibration knocked Kaoru to the floor. Weakly in her suffocation, she crawled to Toji; still desperate to save him. As the world faded from her, though, she swore she saw her father.


	6. Being Responsible for Yourself

**Author's Note:** Ah, it feels good to have these opening chapters done. This chapter is where I mark the conclusion of the end of the first of three developmental arcs... and drive right into the second. I hope you all enjoy this transition from the 'My Family Arc' to the 'My Self Arc', and thank you for all of the support.

This chapter has been courteously beta'd by: Scarred Sword Heart. Forever thanks.

**Chapter 5**

Being Responsible for Yourself

* * *

When consciousness returned to Kaoru, she found herself looking up at the ceiling of Doctor Gensai's clinic. Her head felt fuzzy, and she was shivering without feeling any cold. Her mind did eventually come to wonder, a little slowly, how she got here. 'There was a burning building. The burly man with the deep voice and-'

"Toji!"

Kaoru sat up so fast that her head spun. She almost fell back into the cot, but Dr. Gensai gently caught her head. "Now, now," he assured. "Let's not get so excited."

"Toji," Kaoru moaned, "Where's Toji?"

Gensai gestured over to a cot on her left. "He's recovering just fine over there, child," he assured.

All of Kaoru's memories came flooding back to her: the smell of burning wood and flesh, the bloodied faces frozen in the horror of their own death, and the gurgling sputter of someone she loved choking on their own blood. "He's not fine," she whispered. Tears began streaming down her cheeks. "And it's all my fault."

"Oh no, child! You were very brave. Nothing is your fault. Don't say such things!" Gensai lifted the girl up by her shoulders and held her as she cried away.

Standing just outside the open door was Koshijirō, his mind too preoccupied by the heartbreaking cries of his child to pay mind to the lithe police officer in front of him.

"Mr. Kamiya," the narrow-eyed man insisted with his artificial smile. "Please, I need your attention."

"Hm? Oh, I'm sorry," Koshijirō stated.

There was no change in the false expression; not even a register of the air's gravity. "Due to your inability to apprehend the assailant yesterday-"

"Saving my daughter and Toji took precedent," Koshijirō stated firmly.

"I do not doubt you feel that way, regardless, any other clues we have to preventing such a tragedy from occurring again went up in that fire. Are you certain you know nothing else?"

That fake smile was really beginning to grate on Koshijirō's nerves. "Everything I have told you is all I know about the Masumoto family."

"Rumours. One would think someone about to marry his daughter into the family would have taken more effort to know his future in-laws." The snide words rolled off his tongue as naturally as an assassin's blade slid through the ribcage.

"Is there anything else, Mister Fujita?" Koshijirō could not hide the growl rising in his voice.

"Well, now that your daughter is awake, perhaps I should question her to see is she can reveal something," Fujita suggested.

"No offense, but my daughter is not in a state that we should risk further upsetting her, and I can't trust you to have the tact to handle that. When she is ready, I will talk with her and report what she tells me to the police."

The fake smile was gone now. The expression of stern annoyance matching Koshijirō. There was a certain level of satisfaction in Koshijirō's heart. The new expression was much more honest and natural to the face. "Your family's safety should be what concerns you, Mr. Kamiya, but I suppose I have no reason to be concerned over your priorities," the wolfish man took his leave from the clinic.

Koshijirō sneered. This was the first year he had seen this officer, and he only hoped his future work with the police would not have him associating with Fujita further. The man had too much of a killer's kenki for his liking - a war-dog not mad with blood-lust but not yet tired of its taste either.

All he could do was sigh his frustrations away and attend his daughter. Gensai passed the weeping child to her father as he sat upon the cot. When Kaoru was safely in her father's arms, Gensai went to check on Toji's condition.

Kaoru sobbed into Koshijirō's chest. "Papa! It's my fault!" she sobbed.

"Kaoru," Koshijirō stroked her hair to try and sooth her.

"It's all my fault!" Kaoru turned her bloodshot eyes up to her father's. "The man that hurt Toji - that killed his family! He said that he worked for the man I hurt! He knew, Papa! Toji took the blame so I wouldn't get in trouble, but he knew! He said I should be punished, but he didn't punish me! He went after Toji! But, it was my fault! My fault! My fault!"

"Kaoru," Gensai tried to interject more but Koshijirō held up his hand to stop him.

Slowly, evenly Koshijirō spoke. "Kaoru, who is this man you hurt?"

Kaoru sobbed. "The one that attacked the village peddler. The one that bit off his tongue. Toji took the blame for me, but it wasn't him. It was me! It was me! It's all my fault!" Kaoru's head fell back into her father's chest, and she wailed.

Koshijirō tried to wrap his head around his information. All of this death and suffering over one child's mistake. Grievous as it was, Koshijirō's mind could not wrap around someone's heart holding such hatred for a little girl after so many years. 'Tachibana. It's a start. When she calms, I will go and give that name to the police.'

"Ah! Good, you're awake!" Gensai chimed. "That's very good! There's a very scared little girl that has been crying her eyes out with worry about you." Kaoru's face slowly rose away from her father's chest and turned to see Toji as he worked to sit up. "Take it easy now. You still need a lot of rest."

"Toji?" Kaoru whispered. The boy turned his head to the sound of his name. "Toji!" Kaoru flew to the boy and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Her tear-stained face vigorously planting little kisses on his cheek. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Toji firmly grabbed her shoulders and pushed her gently away from him. Kaoru was confused by the action, but she relented. She was even more confused when he shakingly stood and left the room. "Where are you going?" She turned her head to glance at her father. "Papa, where's he going?"

Koshijirō placed a hand on Kaoru's shoulder. "He's going through a lot right now, Kaoru. He probably just needs some space."

"But, Dr. Gensai said he should rest! He should lie down here, and then we can leave him alone," Kaoru ran out of the room, "Toji! Come back!"

The fifteen year old boy had been bracing himself against a wall so he had not gotten far. Kaoru ran in front of him. "Hey, the doctor said you should rest! If you just want some time alone, then you go back to the bed and we'll leave." Toji lifted his free hand and cupped Kaoru's cheek with it. Kaoru closed her eyes awaited the affectionate pat, but what came next was a hard open-handed strike.

It took a moment to register. Toji had struck her. He had struck her right across the face. "T-Toji?" Kaoru finally found his eyes; his light brown eyes. They were different now. They bared an emotion she had never before seen in his eyes. At first, she didn't know what to make of it, but soon a feeling of dread welled up in her stomach. That look, it was hatred - hatred for her.

Toji pressed onward leaving Kaoru behind. Kaoru felt weak. Never in her worst of nightmares had she ever imagined that Toji, of all people, could hate her. The tears came back as she sank to her knees. Another horrible realization came to her. She deserved his hatred.

* * *

Farewell. That was all it said.

He left much behind. Only taking his money and a few essentials. He had assembled the rest in a knee-high pile and put it away in the storehouse. The only trace of him in the house was his letter. A letter with one word. Farewell.

Kaoru was past tears at this point. She hated herself. She loathed herself. She just sat at the table staring at the letter. That's how she was when Koshijirō left to go talk to the police. That's how she was when he returned. "Kaoru?" he said softly. "You mustn't sulk."

"Sulk? Sulk! I sulk when we don't have enough timber to heat the bath! I sulk when I get a stain on a good kimono! This is your daughter grieving, Papa! Grieving because the man she loves, the one she dreamt her whole life she'd marry, hates her and has left! Left forever!" she yelled, slowly coming to her feet.

Koshijirō stayed silent with his eyes full of pity. "Worse! I deserve to be hated! I let him take the blame for something I did. You kick him out of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. His home is burned down. His family gets murdered. He nearly dies and can never speak again. All because of me!"

Kaoru watch and waited intently for her father's response. She didn't know what she expected. She didn't even know what reaction she wanted. All Koshijirō did, though, was look at her. Look at her with eyes filled with pity.

"Papa, say something!" she demanded. Koshijirō didn't say anything. He simply embraced his daughter, and she hugged him back. "There has to be something I can do."

Her father let out a proud hum. "You have the right attitude about it," he agreed.

"What if you let him back into Kamiya Kasshin Ryu?" she asked hopefully.

"Now that you've confessed, he's welcome back, but I don't think that will-"

"Now that I've confessed?" Kaoru's head quirked at the choice of phrasing. "You make it sound like you were waiting for it?"

"I was," Koshijirō admitted.

Kaoru's mouth fell agape. "H-how long?"

Koshijirō sighed and loosen his hold on Kaoru. "From the beginning. There was blood at the end of your practice stick and the mark under the Tachibana's jaw was much too small to have been caused by a shinai," he explained.

"You knew?" Kaoru did not try to hide her disgust. "You knew, and you still punished Toji?"

"It was Toji's decision to take responsibility for you. It is not my place to call him out," he explained.

"You- ... over the years, you let him suffer with an unjust punishment," Kaoru spat pushing away from her father. Her father was once again silent, but what he was thinking did not need to be said. His face was stern and unapologetic. As far as he was concerned, the one that let Toji suffer with an 'unjust' punishment was Kaoru herself.

Rage and hurt churned together. Kaoru wanted to slap her father, but something in her subconscious stopped her. The tense silence felt like it went on for hours until Kaoru finally whispered out, "I'm leaving." Koshijirō quirked his brow as if not understanding her words. "I'm going after Toji. I'm going to make it up to him."

"Kaoru!" Koshijirō objected.

"You can either let me leave, or you can try to lock me away until I sneak out, but I won't stay here!" she declared confidently. Koshijirō sighed, bowed his head, and picked up his eleven year old daughter and tossed her onto his shoulder. "H-hey! What are you doing?"

"Punishing my stubborn brat of a child," he explained irately. Kaoru ended up finding herself in the home's storehouse with all her sleeping amenities. The door was barred. "You can come out when you get some sense in your head."

"Jerk!" Kaoru yelled. "I hate you!" Koshijirō seemed unphased by the verbal attack and simply walked away. Kaoru growled viciously in frustration. Everything about this situation was unacceptable. She kicked and slammed on the door screaming curses to her father's name; her tantrum echoing in the near hollow storeroom.

Kicking turned into pacing when she realised her father would not see reason. She declared she would not stay here. Not when she could be out in the world atoning for her lie, and making it up the injured boy she loved so much. The boards of the floor creeked with every step, and soon the sun would be going down. Kaoru began to wonder if her father truly did wish to imprison her until she changed her mind.

"Kaoru?" a soft female voice whispered from the door.

Kaoru's tilted her head in confusion, "Tae?"

"Toji came by the Akabeko with Doctor Gensai, who said that he was leaving. I came by to see how you were doing and bring you some cheer up sweets," Tae explained as she peeked over the bottom of the window on the door. "Your dad said you were in here cooling off."

Kaoru had to smile at her sweet friend's concern. "Papa won't let me follow after Toji, so he imprisoned me in here."

"I see. Toji came by to let us know he was quitting and sell us six jugs of that sake he makes." Kaoru looked around the storeroom and noticed that amongst the things gone were the tools and materials he used to make his sake. Tae continued, "Kaoru, why is he leaving?"

Kaoru's heart sank with her eyes. "Because I told a terrible lie a long time ago, and it's now ruined his life." Kaoru was about to cry again, but she stopped herself. "But that's why I have to get out of here. I have to go and find him. Make it up to him and," she paused and her voice softened as confidence faltered to shaky hope. "And, maybe, bring him home."

Tae took in a high squealing breath of excitement. Her eyes were dreamy and her face had a tiny little blush. "Ah wow! That's so romantic! I wish there was something I could do to help."

Kaoru was a little surprised. "You do? Aren't you scared of my Papa?"

"He's not my dad or my master. Why should I be? Besides, isn't it better to help two people in love?" Tae giggled. "Do you just need me to open the door?"

Kaoru grinned devilishly seeing her escape at hand. She went up to the door, and - while simultaneously pulling herself up by the window bars and standing on her tip-toes - she whispered out to her friend. "No, Papa is bound to notice me leaving the storehouse to pack up what I need. Simply unbarring the door would only result with a bokken to my head and more time in here. Go inside and tell Papa I need an uma and a new change of clothes. That way, he won't question or go into my room with you. Pack up some things in the bag I use to tote equipment to other dojos and leave it just inside the shoji. Bring me the clothes then go distract my Papa. There's some boards in here I'm sure I can pry up, but I don't want him noticing the noise."

"How long will that take?"

"I dunno. Maybe fifteen minutes? Then I'll wait until an hour before dawn. He'll be asleep then. That's when I'll sneak out."

"An hour before dawn. Got it!" Tae passed Kaoru the small box of sweets she promised and ran up to the house. "Mr. Kamiya?" He wasn't in the sitting room as he had been when she first came in. "Mr. Kamiya?"

"In here, Tae," Koshijirō called from his bedroom. The inner shoji was already open so Tae peeked right in. Kaoru's father was sitting in front of the buchidan altar the family had built for Riko when they returned to Tokyo.

"Um, Mr. Kamiya, Kaoru needs a new uma and a change of clothes," Tae explained a little overexcited.

Koshijirō winced slightly but smiled gently at Tae all the same. "Oh, ah, I'm sure there something in her room. Just go take a look."

"Thank you." Tae bowed a trotted over to Kaoru's room. Tae was thankful for how organized Kaoru was as it made finding and packing her things up very quick and easy. When she finished, she clutched the fresh kimono and undergarment to her chest and called that she found what she was looking for. She didn't wait for Koshijirō to respond as she went straight outside to make her delivery. After she passed Kaoru the fresh clothes she went right back to the house to start phase two of the plan.

Tae pondered as she entered the house what she should say to distract him. It would be far too suspicious to talk to him about kenjutsu as she honestly couldn't care less. She wracked her brain but upon coming to the open shoji there was still nothing. Her friend's father still sat there facing the altar. The solemn air Tae had always felt about the man was much heavier than usual.

The young waitress's emotions got the better of her. "You should be able to understand!" she accused.

"Hm?"

"You were in love! You should understand Kaoru's feelings!"

Koshijirō couldn't help but chuckle. "Is that what you two were whispering about?" He started to laugh out loud.

Tae felt incredibly annoyed at his dismissal. "You shouldn't laugh!"

"My apologies, Miss Tae. It's just that, well, that sounds like Kaoru." Koshijirō noted her confusion and decided to explain. "You see, I was just asking my late wife for a little insight. She was always so good with Kaoru. I remember how, when she was a babe, she wanted nothing to do with me. Any time Riko held her, she'd coo and laugh; while whenever I held her, she'd make this unhappy face and swing her arms like she wanted to slap me. Haha, a couple of times she got me real good.

Its just nice to know that after all that time raising her that I'm not completely clueless about her."

"So? Are you saying you understand how she feels?" Tae asked feeling a little hopeful that maybe Koshijirō would be reasonable.

"I understand that she's angry with me, and I understand that she is devastated about his whole situation with Toji. Kaoru's greatest drive in life is becoming the need to shelter others and provide. All of these reasons are why she wants to leave."

"That, and love," Tae added.

"But what about Toji's feelings?" he asked.

Tae looked at him and little dumbstruck. "W-well, I don't know," she conceded.

"Well, hopefully Kaoru is considering that right now." Koshijirō returned his attention to the shrine. There was an uneasy silence that Koshijirō seemed to be unphased by, but Tae was not allowed much comfort in it.

She just didn't agree. There was no rationale in her young mind that seemed good enough to get in the way of his daughter's love. She also doubted apprehension on behalf of Toji's feelings was Koshijirō's real concern. The sad look on his face was too similar to that of her own father's when they left her sister, Sae, in Kyoto to help their aunt with the original restaurant.

"I think I have a solution," she offered meekly.

* * *

The space between the floor of the storehouse and the ground was absolutely disgusting. More than once, Kaoru had to swallow a shriek as a centipede crawled over her, and she was certain the number of cobwebs in her hair were now thick enough to be a thin little wig. First thing she'd do when she got out of here was find a hot spring, she determined.

She was so relieved when she was out in the open as she sucked in the air as if it somehow tasted differently than in the storehouse. That taste caught in her lungs, however, when she made note of the lantern light coming from her father's bedroom. He was still awake. She cursed herself for thinking he wouldn't take her pledge to leave more seriously.

Hopelessness fluttered in her stomach as she could not fathom hope that she could get past her father's awaking senses. Her skin goose-bumped and trembled at the visions of wrath Koshijirō would unleash upon discovering her. Suddenly, her pride and love did not seem worth the attempt.

That was when something caught her eye. Around the corner of the house stood a feminine form waving to try and catch her attention. Tae? The older girl was smiling in an encouraging way and motioning her to hurry on.

Kaoru's fear was replaced with a new sort. Tae presence made the excursion about more than herself and to cower away now meant abandoning her. Kaoru released the breath she had unconsciously held and sucked in another deeply. She slid her feet from her geta deciding that tabied feet were preferably quieter. A shoe in each hand, she took one step and then another. 'I am a ninja of Castle Edo,' she thought hoping her envisioning would add skill to her reality. 'Not even the great Kamiya Koshijirō can hear me.'

It seemed to be working. Not a sound stirred from the house, and there was no sign of movement. Kaoru made it to the deck. Quietly, she set her geta on the dusty ground to start crawling across the wood to her shoji. She slid it open and saw her bag set immediately at the latch, stuffed to the point of near bursting. Tae, certainly, did not pack lightly for her. Thankfully, the bag was filled with a lighter fare and only made for a slightly heavy burden.

On her knees, she inched backwards clutching the bag to her chest. Her eyes never left the shoji of her father's room. When she reached the end of the deck, she paused to consider her best course of action; rather to continue with the slow careful stealth she had been using or to make a run for it and pray speed did not sacrifice too much of her stealth. The sound of weight brushing across a matted floor made her decision for her. Her feet found the geta and she booked it for Tae.

She quickly rounded past her friend sharply whispering, "Let's go!" and charged out through the gate and to the east. It was only when the sight of the burned away Masumoto estate came to view that she stopped, allowing Tae to catch up with her.

Tae huffed and wheezed on reaching Kaoru. Through panting breaths, she stated, "You could've slowed down a lot sooner! I'm not a kenjutsu expert like you!"

The complement flew over Kaoru's head in favor of a question. "What are you doing here, Tae?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm coming with you!" the older girl exclaimed. "I went to Doctor Gensai and asked him since Toji was with him last. Doctor Gensai said that Toji used the sake money to buy a ticket on that new rail line to Yokohama for yesterday evening. I already bought our tickets!" Tae reached into her pocket and pulled out two train tickets. "It leaves in two hours. We should hurry, or we'll lose his trail."

Kaoru's eyes widened at the flood of information. Tae knocked her from her stupor though by grabbing her arm and pulling Kaoru after her to their destination.

Kaoru was only able to find her wits again upon arrival at the station as they sat at the boarding station with one another. "Tae? Why are you running away with me?" she asked softly as she stared at her knees.

"I'm not running away. My dad knows I'm with you and I've promised to write him as much as possible," she said with a chuckle and a gentle punch to the arm. "I'm going with you because I want to help you prove your father wrong in the way he's handling this."

"Tae.."

"Besides, how were you expecting to find him? You don't have any money, and someone needs to fit the bill. I mean, these train tickets were expensive, and you'd think when the government introduces a new kind of currency that it would go a little further." Kaoru waved her hands to catch Tae's attention but to no avail. Something about money always sent the quiet girl into full on rant. "Well, I guess it makes more sense to give us a coin and say its worth one point five grams of gold then those paper notes some people are trying to print."

"Tae."

"Oh! Or worse, that foreign money most of us had to use during the revolution. It really shows you how worthless your money is when you need to use money from another country! What country was that from anyway?"

"Tae."

"I'm sure it was from the east but it wasn't from the same country of that Matthew Perry guy."

"Tae!"

"Oh, its going to bother me now. You remember it, don't you? That paso money?"

"Tae!" Kaoru yelled as she smack her friend over the back of the head.

"Ow!" Tae grabbed the back of her, now, aching head quite certain there was going to be a lump. "Kaoru! What was that for?"

"The train's here," Kaoru grumbled pointing in front of them.

Tae realised her ramblings had distracted her and blushed at her oblivious demeanour. "Oh, well, so it is." Tae stood from the bench the two girls had been sitting at. "Well, we should get going." The two girls went to grab their belongings when Tae's face twitched in remembrance. "Oh! I almost forgot." Tae opened her bag and pulled out what appeared to be a book, but there was no sign of letters or even pictures. "Here, when I was talking to your dad, he mentioned he was going to give this to you when you mastered Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, but with you leaving, well, just here. He said it was your mother's."

"My Mama's?" Kaoru took the book from the older girl and looked it over. It was worn but well maintained. The wear on the pages looked as though it was regularly looked through.

Kaoru didn't remember much at all about her mother, but she did remember that she was blind. Why would a blind woman own a book? She leafed through the pages and found them to be just like the cover with no letters or pictures that she could see - just a bunch of little bumps. Kaoru ran her finger over the bumps. They made no sense to her but… Could this be how her mother read something?

Tae beamed a content smile. "It's a strange book to me, but your dad said it was your mom's favourite thing. Hope you like it."

Kaoru was so touched. She never really ask her father or Toji about her mother as she knew the subject upset them, and she worried that revealing how little her memory of her was would somehow worsen their opinion of her. The only things she remembered was the song she whispered to herself every night and the smell of jasmine as all else she knew was hearsay, but having this book now, even if she couldn't read it, it was something her mother held with her own hands - something that gave her joy.

Kaoru clutched the book to her chest. Her eyes watered with joy though no tear would fall. "I love it. Thank you for getting it from my Papa, Tae."

* * *

The train ride had was crowded and noisy. In Tae's complaining of the cost of the train tickets, she had not mentioned that she had bought economy tickets. Most passengers were thrill seekers looking for a means to brag about their experiences on the cheap. Part of Kaoru couldn't blame them as she had been curious to ride when the rail first opened; she just wished all the other people had picked a different day as her sleepless night made her long for a place to sit. A pleasure the was denied to her for the entirety of the ride.

Kaoru ended up relying a great deal on Tae when it came to the talking aspect. She had to hand it to the waitress as the girl could really read people. She knew just when to play the lost maiden, the confident adventure seeker, or, the most embarrassing one to Kaoru, the sidekick to the heroine looking for her star-crossed lover. That last character she was too good at for Kaoru's taste.

Still, it did seem to be working. Naturally, many leads led to dead ends, but it never felt like they had lost him. The goose chase was still frustrating despite it all though. It seemed like Toji, himself, was jumping around the city looking for something, and judging by the places he was visiting, Kaoru felt she wasn't going to like what that something was.

"Tae?" Kaoru murmured grabbing onto the older girl's sleeve as they stood outside the gambling hall. "Maybe we should call it a day?"

Tae looked at her friend in utter shock. "You can't be serious? I know it's scary but our lead says Toji was seen going in here."

Kaoru furrowed her brow in frustration. "Our lead was a man that stank of bad sake complaining about being cheated. Probably at this hall," Kaoru hissed in exhaustion.

"Better than nothing, besides, would you rather go home to your father with your tail between your legs after only half a day?"

"Fine, fine! I just don't see Toji coming to a place like this, but I get your point." Kaoru took in a deep breath and clapped her hands on her cheeks to try and reinvigorate herself. "All right! Let's go."

"Atta girl, Kaoru!" Tae cheered taking a notable position of semi-cowering behind the younger girl.

The two entered the gambling hall with all the false bravado of a green-boy just before duelling his senior. For the most part, the patrons paid them no mind being too caught up in their losses to notice the girls.

The doorman did take notice of them, however. "Nobody told me an order was placed for company from the red-light district," he sneered rubbing his thumb to his nose. "You two look a little drab to be maiko, though. Guess someone's too much of a cheap-skate to pay for the real deal."

Kaoru's face went red with fury, and, without thinking, the ball of her foot met the doorman's leg just below his knee cap. "I'm not a prostitute, you pig!" she roared.

The man's leg came up in his hands with a yelp. "Why you-" The doorman reached at Kaoru, but she ducked away pulling Tae with her and kicked out at the back of the leg he was supporting most of his weight on. The thud of the large doorman landing on his chin was enough to gain the whole hall's attention. The doorman growled in fury picking himself up to his arms and knees. "Bitch!" he spat. He brought his arm around to strike at Kaoru.

"Enough!" came the low voice of the dice roller.

The doorman froze in his attempt at assault.

Kaoru did not alleviate her fighting stance but still felt grateful as she was not used to fighting without a sword, and - at her state of exhaustion - she wasn't sure how much longer she could continue.

The dice roller was an older man but hardly grizzled. "Young lady," he chuckled, "Please don't embarrass my doorman like that. It makes its alot harder for him to do his job of looking intimidating."

Tae straightened her posture and bowed. "Um, thank you and sorry about my friend. She's had it really hard the past couple of days."

"Hm, she's Masumoto's betrothed, right? I bet she has." The roller passed his dice to a subordinate and motioned the uneasy girls to follow him. The girls obeyed.

"How do you know about me and Toji?" Kaoru asked entering a back-room with Tae just behind the man. Both girls found sitting cushions at a tea table as the man himself sat formally in front of a used looking futon. Kaoru had never seen a cathouse room, but that atmosphere was the impression the room gave to her. "Who are you?"

"Yuuta. Ueda Yuuta, and you are Kamiya Kaoru. I'm afraid I don't know your friend's name," he grinned.

The name sounded way too fake, but Kaoru could not find herself to care. "Answer my first question," Kaoru commanded completely forgetting her earlier exhaustion.

Yuuta laughed deep in his throat. "I've met you. That's how I know you. I can't say I had much pleasure in getting to know you, as the young Mister Masumoto took care to usher your attention away from, well, my sort of people whenever you visited the estate."

Yakuza. Toji's family had been rumoured to be on the top edge of the raising silk trade due to underhanded dealings and theft by yakuza, but she had always prayed it had been her father's over-protectiveness and fish-wife gossip. Still, even with his family's involvement Kaoru could not believe Toji willingly took part.

"As I told the young Mister Masumoto, you have my condolences," Yuuta hummed pleasantly.

"So Toji was here," Kaoru stated matter of factly.

"This morning - looking for information on the new street fighter Zanza."

Tae creased her brow in confusion. "Zanza?"

"He's said to be the best fighter-for-hire in Tokyo. Some even say Japan," Yuuta explained calmly. "About a week ago there was some whispers of a Kyoto yakuza leader was searching him out. Apparently, young Mister Masumoto had the impression that Zanza was the ringleader to misfortunes of his household."

The night a week ago, Toji's suddenly wanting to be with his parents and his defensive reaction to her coming in the room suddenly made more sense. As did the number of scary house guests. "But that's not the truth," Kaoru assumed aloud.

"Zanza is only interested in one thing, and that's a good fight. A hit on a family of silk traders trying to buy a samurai name with marriage does not have the makings of a good fight." He started laughing aloud, "Though, based on how I heard you handled his runner-up, he might be regretting that now."

"So, you know who that man was, then?" Kaoru phrasing was that of a question but her tone implied her demand for the assailant's identity.

"Ah yes. That would be Aruto, but I will offer you the same bit of advice I offered the young Mister Masumoto; while I trust you may handle yourself better than he would, why charge the edge of the sword when I could simply tell you the about the wallet that paid for it."

"And what would we have to pay for this information?" Kaoru asked.

"Nothing. I made a mint in my dealings with the Masumoto's. Consider it my well wishes that fine Gendo, sweet Nami, and the rest of the family rest in peace," he assured. "Though, if I had known you were coming I may have waited to give my wishes to their fullest."

The innuendo went over Tae's head as her face crinkled trying to figure everything out.

Kaoru remained stone-faced. "This Kyoto yakuza, Tachibana?"

"Oh, you know about Tachibana? Good to know, but no, he's not Aruto's financier. He was just looking for Zanza, true, but he's been quiet since the first little chirp. Based on what I learned for the young Mister Masumoto, I would not be surprised as to Tachibana's involvement, and I understand the police are investigating him, they'll only kick up dust. The man you want is Beaumont Elliot. A French tradesman the Masumoto's know well as he runs a silk weaving factory out of Osaka. The Masumotos had been trying to buy him out for the past year."

Kaoru bowed low to the yakuza in genuine gratitude if not some begrudged respect. "Thank you very much. I assume Toji showed signs of leaving for Osaka immediately."

"I gave him my only carriage."

Kaoru stood and turned to leave. "Thank you. Let's go, Tae."

"Um, right." Tae bowed herself. "Thank you."

With that done, the two girls left but the mood never lifted as Kaoru simply went about inquiring the fastest way to Osaka. The answer came quick as by seaway. Eventually, the tension got the better of Tae. "Kaoru, why so glum? We're already on our way to finding Toji. You should be happy."

"Well, I'm not, Tae, I'm sorry," Kaoru snapped in annoyance.

Tae was taken aback. "I don't get it. What's wrong?"

Kaoru let the silence linger as she pondered the best words before deciding to say it plainly. "Toji… He's going to kill someone."


	7. Plight of Those Beneath a King

Courteously Beta'd by: Scarred Sword Heart

**Chapter 6**

Plight of Those Under a King

The ship had not been fast enough. Everywhere was a swarm of single-track buzz and the rumblings of fear, but whereas the aloud conjecture of investigators fervently asking what had happened filled the street before the large building, Kaoru's heart bore a different question. How could you?

Elliot Beaumont had, apparently, been found struck in the street with a wound across his abdomen that spilled his entrails from his right lateral until about halfway through his midsection. A gruesome end that would have been reminiscent of butchering livestock, but at least a butcher would have been considerate of neighbours and not damaged the internal organs so much.

Based on the accounts Kaoru was hearing, Toji had killed Beaumont out in the open as witnesses had described a samurai in black with a scarf about his face running past the Frenchman before Beaumont simply seemed to erupt in gore. Beaumont must have been graced with passing out from the pain before he agonizingly bled to death as there was no account of him screaming.

Many of the investigators floated the word ninja, but anyone that really stopped to think about it would know that a professional would not have made such a kill with so many witnesses to identify him later. Not to mention that, while the wound was lethal, not instantly killing a target allowed a window for the target to live.

No, Toji must have just leaped on the first opportunity to kill Beaumont he saw. Probably so he wouldn't lose his nerve.

A new Namamugi Incident was a title frequently floated, and even though it had been ten years since the Bombardment of Shimonoseki, the violence that continued to follow was as fresh a wound as ever. Comparing the death of one man to the destruction of a shipping line was not a fair comparison, but 'Expel the Barbarians' was an edict western powers would probably never take a liking to, and it only took one person to become a martyr.

As for Kaoru, it didn't matter what the person's background was or where they came from. Toji had taken a life, and this thought made something inside Kaoru die along with that man.

Tae's empathetic nature was not oblivious to her friend's strife. "Little Kaoru, let's go. You shouldn't be here." She placed a soothing hand to her friend's lower back in an attempt to guide her out. Steadfast and white-knuckled, though, Kaoru held her ground.

It was all too surreal. People did not walk on the ground but glided as if they were spirits upon the earth. She held great affection for her friend in her attempts to shield her, but Kaoru felt, more than ever, if she were to wake from this nightmare she'd have to find Toji. Find him, and bring him to his senses as well.

"If I leave now then there was no point in coming," Kaoru put on the bravest smile she could muster for her friend's sake. "Toji… he's my responsibility. I'm not facing Papa's shinai without proving that I am able to take on some of the world's consequences. He'd never let me leave the dojo again. I'll be okay. I promise."

The sad look in Tae's eyes betrayed that she was not convinced, but she knew that she was here to help Kaoru. For right now, this meant letting Kaoru do what she had to and being ready to help her with the emotional fallout.

The two girls pushed their way through the crowd. They weren't quite sure what they were looking for, but so many investigators were here to question someone. It was as good a place to start as any.

Finding the prime person of interest wasn't a difficult task. She sat demurely on a stool before one of the factory's barred entrances in a white kimono with black and pink flowers. Her makeup was heavy and fresh, but even a cursory glance could note that it had only been just recently touched up at a poor attempt to hide recent crying.

Kaoru's first instinct was to curse the insensitivity of the investigators, but the sad smile of the woman made it plain that she did not feel put upon by the questioning. She had chosen to be here.

And so, Kaoru waited patiently; listening to all of the questions and statements so as to limit her own.

Apparently, the woman was Beaumont's interpreter: Oda Ai. A truly prestigious bushi name, yet with no real power in the world of the Meiji Restoration.

Listening to the chatter further, Kaoru learned the Lady Oda had been with Beaumont at the time of his death. He had taken her family out to celebrate a recent surge in profit. His last words had been asking her daughters if they were looking forward to moving into a bigger home.

The more she heard, the more her stomach churned. How could you come to pity and hate someone at the same time, and how could you feel so strongly about people you hadn't even properly met?

The rest Kaoru had already read in the newspaper.

Slowly, the crowd weeded away, feeling satisfied in the answers. Kaoru and Tae's bizarre presence had not gone unnoticed by Lady Oda as she would offer the girls a sorrowful smile in between questions. When the last of the investigators had cleared away, she bowed meekly in greeting.

"Did you girls come to work in the factory? We've had many women come to Osaka to work for us. Unfortunately, the factory is closed right now, and I am not sure when we will reopen."

Tae stepped forward. "Um, actually, when came here looking for someone."

Lady Oda's brow crease with a gentle curiosity. "Oh, who?"

Tae did not know how to answer. She wracked her brain but couldn't contrive of even a pseudo-polite way to say for the man that killed your employer.

Kaoru roused her own voice, weak as it was. "... How many people worked for Mister Beaumont?"

"Are you looking for an employee? Well, I don't know the exact number, however I'd have to estimate that we have a little over fifty employees," Lady Oda explained. The demure woman looked over the ragged girls. Her eyes rested on the shinai slid into the belt of Kaoru's hakama. "I can honestly say that I have never seen a young lady sport a weapon; even a wooden one. May I ask what it is for?"

Tae spoke for Kaoru. "My friend is the only child of a great swordmaster in Tokyo. She's heir to the style he invented."

"Really," Lady Oda's voice gave off flexed amusement without the slightest hit of condescension Kaoru would normally expect to hear in such a response. It was making her more annoying. There lingered a silence that neither Kaoru or Tae quite grasped how to break; no matter how desperately they wished to. When it became clear to Lady Oda that both girls were at a loss for the words they obviously wanted to say, she came to her own decision and spoke. "Well, I must be on my way. If I am idle for too long I will not be able to find myself new employment."

The second half of her statement shocked the words out of Kaoru. "New employment? What about the factory?"

Lady Oda offered a sad yet knowing smile. "Hm? I'm sorry, but do you really believe anyone will come to take over its operations after hearing of Mister Beaumont's fate? No one should expect to be saved else their idle hope make their own situation worse." Lady Oda bowed. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I hope you find the one you're looking for."

Lady Oda began heading north away from the girls. Kaoru stepped her foot out firmly and called to her. "Wait! The killer! In what directions did he move?"

Lady Oda stopped and tilted her head in their direction as she spoke, though she did not look back or face them. "I am no swordswoman, little kenjutsu heir, I could not begin to tell you anything useful in how to fight him."

"I know how he fights! That's not what I'm asking! If I'm going to look for clues on where he went I need to know where he's been!"

Lady Oda winced a little but otherwise her stance and posture did not change. "Mm, I see. I'll be honest, I was very engrossed in conversation with Mister Beaumont at the time. I know that we were heading east along the street and the killer ran passed us in his attack going the opposite direction. I also know that he stopped to, I'm guessing, watch Mister Beaumont die for a moment before running into a south running alley by the butcher shop."

"It's a start. Let's go, Tae!"

Kaoru took off like a shot before Tae could hesitantly bow and follow.

The street the murder occurred when it was still mostly empty due to the early hour. It seemed to be shop owners and people oblivious to current events that were present. The police had already cleared the site away, leaving Kaoru only with her conjecture as to what had happened.

Tae watched silently as her friend paced the half block length Kaoru seemed to dub as the murder site as she muttered to herself. The older girl could only lean against a barrel and shuffle her feet occasionally. Ever since she had found that gambling house, nothing about this trip had gone as it should have. She remembered being annoyed with Kaoru before then as she been so wistful and somber. Kaoru had the energy Tae had been trying to bring out of her now, but it felt like for all the wrong reasons.

Tae wished she had listened to Koshijirō now. She wished that she hadn't have to have been the one to convince him to let Kaoru leave. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She had imagined that Toji may have gone off with some half-contrived idea of revenge in mind. That seemed like a passion a romantic boy like him would've dreamed up. At the same time, she had a hard time imagining Toji not turning completely blue in the face at the sight of a real sword and running back to the Akabeko kitchen declaring that a blade to chop beef was all he'd ever need. That Yuuta character had changed everything.

No longer was she on some quest helping to reunite young love. Now, she witnessed her friend blocking her emotions off as she tracked a killer that had not only been her first love but her first student, truly, as well. The future leader to the sword style that was meant to give life and protect people was now tracking a murderer using skill she and her father had taught to him.

Every fibre of Tae's being screamed to tell Kaoru that they needed to just go home, but she also knew that going home would be destructive to Kaoru's psyche in equal amounts to this. So Tae remained silent, kept shuffling her feet, and watched her friend examine an alleyway a little too fervently.

"Tae! Come here!" Kaoru called running further into the alleyway.

Tae, remorsefully yet promptly, followed suit. "What is it?"

Kaoru pointed to a red splatter mark barely noticeable in the dirt at the end back tee-junction of the alley. "This has to be the mark from a blood sling."

Tae swallowed. "Do I want to know what a blood sling is?"

"In order to properly maintain your sword, you can't let any blood get into the scabbard else it'll rust the blade. To treat your sword well, it must always be perfectly clean before you sheath it, but you don't always have a cloth to clean it with. That's where a blood swing comes in. It's a swift slice into the air to literally sling the blood from the blade." As Kaoru explained, she knelt down into the dirt to better examine the area.

"Honestly, its not very effective, but it does get some of the blood off the blade, which is better than nothing. I've heard stories that the Hitokiri Battousai was swift and deft enough to clean his sword completely with it, but to be realistic, people also say that guy has god-like speed and can split trees with his kenki. I doubt someone like that can even exist. Oh!" Kaoru's neck snapped up from the ground and she rose.

"What is it?"

"With how loose the dirt is, if Toji had turned left, he would have kicked up dirt behind him and the blood sling wouldn't be nearly so intact. That means he must have turned right."

Tae furrowed her brow at all this. "I realise you're good with that shinai and all, but your sword style avoids shedding blood. How can you discern all this from a swatch of red in the dirt?"

Kaoru stuck her tongue out at Tae, feeling slightly insulted. "I don't know for sure, but blood slinging techniques are common in all kenjutsu styles and reading footwork happens to be what I'm best at. Besides…" Kaoru looked down the right side of the alley.

"Besides?"

"Going right would have him heading the direction of the ocean, and with all the new labourers coming in through the pier, I think he'd consider it a good place to hide."

* * *

"No, I haven't seen anyone matching that description," the pier worker spat defensively. "Now get the hell away from me." He was a really bad liar: the eighth one. Kaoru had hit the point of simply following clues from liar to liar at this point.

Word had spread of the killing like wildfire, and anti-foreign sentiment was apparently strong in Osaka. None of the people here would exchange a Japanese national for a foreigner; no matter who they were. It made Kaoru furious to the point of wanting to draw her weapon, but it was getting late, and they hadn't even secured a place to stay for the night yet. Worse, Tae had told her, on the boat here, that they only had enough money for remaining a couple of days.

Tired, hungry, yet still in a hurry made for a nightmarish combination.

Tae had not said anything more than a few words at a time since they had come back to the pier, and the longer they stayed the more fearful she became. Kaoru was scared too. The first rule of self-defense was to avoid putting yourself in dangerous situation to begin with, and the further to sun descended, the more she was in violation of that rule.

Kaoru groaned in exasperation, "Ah, we're just chasing our tails at this point. We better find a place to sleep and something to eat."

There was relief and Tae's voice was contrary to her words. "Won't we lose the trail if we stop now though?"

Kaoru pondered on that for a moment. "How much yen did you buy the sake for?"

Tae smiled being fast with her numbers. "Not nearly as much as I brought. Not enough to go far without being a vagabond about it and sleeping in the streets."

"So, even if he left town today he's not getting far." Kaoru felt some relief of her own. "We'll get back to the search by dawn's first light."

Unfortunately, Osaka was more expensive than either girl had anticipated. Many people slept on the streets, lucky ones had found a warm wall shared with a kitchen stove. Tae had given a coin to the first three beggar children, but had to stop else they'd not have any money for themselves.

At one point, they passed a woman negotiating quietly with a man in a not-so-hidden alleyway by a one-room home. Kaoru's stomach churned unpleasantly hearing the woman say something about not being able to pay her dead husband's debt yet. She almost reached for her shinai, but the man said that she was too ugly for the red-light district and that he'd let it go until either the factory reopened or the week was up; whichever came first.

By the time they found their lodging, the sun had set and all the kitchens had closed. They ended up sharing a straw mat with empty bellies and several other travelers, many fatherless families come to work in the now defunct factory.

Kaoru only sat quietly and listened as Tae made polite chit-chat with many of the mothers. Nearly all had been promised work to feed their families with the expected expansion - as many now worried they may have to resort to the brothels to feed their children. It was so surreal listening to how the massacre of over twenty people had benefited the lives of so many people yet the death of one man now seemed to promise suffering and starvation.

Sleep for Kaoru was fitful to say the least with short fits of nightmares of the murder at Toji's hand, coupled with the real world sounds of grumbling stomachs and crying babes. She dreamed of her father's teachings; words that spoke of how people did not live in a world where one person's actions could not affect their surroundings, and how every action you made had a consequence that was your own responsibility, no matter how far removed.

Tae would awaken the next morning to find Kaoru gone. Left in her stead was a note simply stating, "I have gone to take on my responsibility. I'll find you before nightfall."

* * *

It had taken most of the afternoon, but Kaoru did track her down. Lady Oda's accommodations were less grand than she had expected. Kaoru's gut twisted as it slightly reminded her of the Masumotos' estate. A servant had stopped her at the gate that she was tempted to push past but decided against it. This situation was too delicate. After the near ten minutes of waiting, she had been allowed to see Lady Oda.

Poise and primped as the day before, Lady Oda sat at the corner on the bend of her home's rear facing deck watching her three daughters, triplets only a couple years younger than Kaoru, playing a game of otedama. The girls were laughing as the one in the yellow kimono had failed to properly grab the bean bags and bitterly passed them to her sister in green.

Lady Oda did not remove her eyes from her children as she spoke. "So, kenjutsu heir, what may I do for you?"

Kaoru swallowed hard feeling great reluctance, but she had to do this. "I've come to pay my penitence."

Lady Oda's small smile disappeared and her eyes narrowed slightly. Still, she did not look away from her children. "No child owes me penitence," she stated flatly.

"I had forsaken childhood when I left my father's dojo to come out here."

"That just makes you sound more childish."

"Please, Mister Beaumont's death is my fault! Let me bear the weight of my responsibility."

This declaration is what snapped Lady Oda's face to look at young Kaoru. "Your fault?"

Kaoru steeled herself. "The killer… I taught him how to use his sword. I had failed to take responsibility for something I did wrong, and he paid my price by being kicked out of our school." This part of the story was surprisingly easy to tell, and Kaoru found herself putting mental checks on her speech so as to not reveal the full extent of her relationship with Toji. That bit of information was far too personal and far too painful; there was no need to release that.

"Despite that, I still taught him, but I failed as a teacher. I only taught him how to use a sword. My style is that of a sword meant only to protect, but my teachings were shallow. I didn't grasp just how difficult the ideal of a protecting sword is." Kaoru paused to study Lady Oda's expression. It was still pale and colorless from her shock, so Kaoru decided to elaborate. "The killer, he is a sweet boy that had something horrible happen to him. I still believe he can return to who he was."

Lady Oda's shock melted into a stoic anger. "A sweet boy? Your story is full of what ifs and if onlys. I will not let a murderer get away with his crime on a little girl's word that he's not who I think he is, and I will not shame myself by soliciting a price for my grief from a naive child."

Kaoru did not back away. "He will pay for his crime, but-"

"But what? By the terms of your little bamboo sword?" Lady Oda turned away from Kaoru so the child could not misinterpret the disgust in her eyes. She felt like she was dealing with a child soldier from the revolution. "Go home, little girl, and be sure to tell your father that it is he that has failed as a master and a father for letting you come out here to me like this." The venom dripped from Lady Oda's words as she turned to her servant. "Please, escort this child out."

Kaoru shrugged the servant's guiding hand away and took a determined step forward. "I accept your hatred, but I will not leave until I know there will be some relief to the suffering Mister Beaumont's death has caused. Over fifty families are now displaced from work and many more were counting on that expansion in production."

"There's nothing you can do for them."

"No, but there is something you can do. You were Mister Beaumont's interpreter and closest companion. I'm certain you know all of the inner workings of running the factory. Instead of finding a new job, you should take over."

Lady Oda's eyes widened yet again as they returned to look upon Kaoru. "You can't be serious!"

"Deadly so." Kaoru felt the last of her doubts melt away as she spoke. She was doing the right thing; she had to be. "With a name like yours, no one will question your dues here, and you already have the foreign ties to pull it off. Please! At least consider it."

There was a long pause between the two. The tension made the air so heavy that it was hard to breathe.

Lady Oda eventually broke the silence. "And what will you be doing?"

"I swear as Kamiya Kaoru of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu that no more life will be lost and to make sure that both of our ideals will be satisfied in the killer's penitence for Mister Beaumont's life."

Lady Oda sighed in defeat. "I suppose I can't let you do that as a beggar on the street, but this is only temporary. I'll make the attempt at buying the factory, and in the mean time I suppose I can find you some work until you get enough sense in your head to go back home."


	8. Building a New Life

_Courteously Beta'd by: Scarred Sword Heart_

**Chapter 7**

Building Your Own Life

* * *

Kaoru's nose crinkled in concentration as she focused on the picture of the extravagant palace. She had learned enough French culture and history to know that it was supposed to be the palace of Versailles, but that wasn't the question. History and cultural facts were easy; language was a whole new animal - and French was nothing like Japanese. Still, she had to answer something.

"Chatte."

The triplets burst into hysterics. Lady Oda's face fell in complete horror before immediately turning to scold her daughters for their laughter. Tae leaned in closer to Kaoru, "Chateau, Kaoru, it's supposed to be chateau."

"What did I say?"

"Ladies should not know such a word," Lady Oda seethed. "Kaoru, consider it a boon you do not know." She was mostly glaring at her daughters wondering where they had learned such language. Sailors on the trade ships, no doubt.

Kaoru scratched her head furiously. Tae had picked up most of the words and grammar in their two years of study. That and math; the girl was a genius with all the math. Yet, Kaoru still struggled with keeping her words straight.

She heaved an exasperated sigh, "It's not like I have to do any talking when I'm out with you or the girls. I can understand it okay, isn't that enough? Just stand up tall and look intimidating. I'm a bodyguard and your daughters' self defense instructor. The only French words I need to know are: combattre, proteger, fuir, and-"

"And, I'm sure kenjutsu is more complicated than attack, defend, and flee!" Lady Oda snapped slamming the picture of the palace on the table before her. "Or, perhaps I'd be better off hiring some yakuza thugs. If I wanted someone to stand by my side and look imposing, they'd certainly fit the bill better than a thirteen year out girl that I've never even seen draw her blade."

Kaoru bit the inside of her cheek and looked sideways to the ground on her left. Next to her sat the katana Lady Oda had bought her shortly after they had come to their agreement. Lady Oda had kept her end of the bargain; with every coin to her name, she had bought the silk factory and worked quite tirelessly to see it flourish. Kaoru was hired on as a very specific kind of bodyguard. Young Haru still suffered the occasional night terror from her specific vantage point in witnessing Beaumont's murder. Nothing Kaoru could say would ever persuade Lady Oda that she was safe from Toji.

She took a breath in to calm her own boiling anger. "I just don't see the point of me learning French when I'm living with five women that can speak it. These meetings I escort you to, well, I don't need to understand every word to be able to determine if you're in any danger."

"And some day, you'll be escorting my daughters to these meetings," Lady Oda explained shuffling through her cards. "Business will always grow and change with the times. It's best that you have a full understanding of our strongest business partners and be completely capable of working with them on your own, should you so need." She picked out a card picturing a bakery.

"Boulangerie." Kaoru defeatedly rested her chin in the palm of her hand. "Does this mean I'll have to learn Dutch too?" Now, it was a picture of a fishery. "Pecherie."

"Perhaps, but right now, we'll stick to French." A picture of a schoolhouse.

"Um, ecole?"

"It's an é sound, Teacher, é," Aki corrected; such a know-it-all.

Kaoru let her forehead fall to meet the table.

Natsu pinched her sister's arm. "Aki, don't question our kenjutsu instructor!"

"Ow! I was just trying to help. She said it wrong. She's the one always telling us that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right," Aki turned to Kaoru for support. "Right, Teacher?"

Kaoru just hit her head on the table again. Tae came to her rescue. "Um, girls, it's almost supper time. I think now a good time for another cooking lesson. Let's let Miss Kaoru finish her lesson in peace."

The triplets groaned, always hating even momentary separations from their beloved kenjutsu instructor. Kaoru had actually gotten used to the clinginess, but that didn't mean they weren't tiresome.

The three girls were identical triplets; all black irises and hair the color of coal. Their physical differences were subtle, but Kaoru had gotten so used to them that, even at a glance, she could tell them apart without even trying.

Aki was smaller in height and build than her sisters. She was also the most inquisitive, to the point that she rambled even through her own question to ask more.

Natsu always had minor fizzy kinks in her hair and her skin darkened in the sun unlike her sisters; who tended to freckle instead. She was the most direct of the three and was always too quick to jump to her own conclusions.

Haru was pale with an ever-present blush on her cheeks no matter what her mood was. The girl would flinch at a wave and talked in near whispers. Once you got to know her, you just realised she was soft-spoken and more than a little twitchy… so long as she didn't have the nightmares.

The rest of the lesson went somewhat smoothly. Only six more flash cards and then it was discussing her understanding of the present book she was reading: L'Union Ouvriere by Flora Tristan. A rather dry read about how the men of France should petition for the emancipation of women or else lose their jobs to a cheaper workforce.

Kaoru had much grown to prefer whenever Lady Oda got French translations of Mary Wollstonecraft: an older British feminist that specialized in the idea of the only difference between men and women was their level of allowed education. Those were harder to get, though. Mostly what was found were just translations of published letters, but Lady Oda had promised to find, either in French of Japanese, a copy of A Vindication of Women's Rights for Kaoru.

After the lesson was supper. Mostly listening to the triplets chatter and gossip about this or that. Then bed by sundown; at least for her. The best means of relaxation she had now.

* * *

_It wasn't coming off. Though the lye burned her skin fiercely, the sticky red liquid would not be washed away. The small stream she washed in would take some of the red into itself, but still the stains remained until she could no longer see her reflection._

_"I'm an adult now! I have taken responsibility, so please… please come off. I don't want to stain everything I touch. Just wash away. Wash away now."_

_A male hand came to rest on her bare shoulder and it was only then that she became aware of her own nudity. She spun around to meet the lecher, but she met with a set of tear-engrossed light brown eyes. Eyes she longed to see._

_"Toji."_

_He was gaunter than usual, almost sickly. Still, he helped her from the red stream not caring about his own apparel. She wanted to feel angry at him. He had left. He had sinned. That's what part of her mind screamed at her. But without a sound he breathlessly mouthed the only words she didn't want to hear from him - I'm so sorry - and she collapsed into his embrace to cry._

_After a moment of sobbing, Toji patted her cheek in that affectionate way he had always before. She tilted her head up to look at him. She had grown a near half a foot in the two years apart while he didn't seem to have aged at all, yet he was still taller than her… somehow._

_They kissed. It was that loving kiss she loved so much. Then, that foreign feeling against her lips came. He was licking her lips, asking her to deepen the kiss. She was thirteen now: an adult. She had outgrown childish reservations, and so she opened her mouth to his._

_A hot thick liquid tasting of iron flooded into her mouth. It nearly choked her. She pushed away and fell back into the bloody stream. Coughing and hacking away to find her breath, she spat out the blood he had flooded her own mouth with._

_"Toji!"_

_The land by the stream was now ablaze. However, through the searing tendrils of yellow and orange she could still see him. Katana now in hand and greased with the retchful mixture of blood, pus, and bile._

_She couldn't see all of him as the flames consumed him, but his eyes were clear. Those hateful brown eyes._

_"No! Stop it! I didn't mean for all this! I should have grown up sooner! I know! But I hate this! I don't want to be an adult if it means I have to face this!" In her head, she heard the screaming of a young girl. "Papa! Please help me!"_

* * *

Compared to the nightmare, Haru's screaming almost felt like a blessing. Kaoru sat up wearily. Natsu and Aki had already rolled over and covered their heads with their pillows. Lazy bums. Kaoru contemplated going back to sharing a room with Tae like when she first moved in just to let the two bums suffer the screaming, but decided against it as that wasn't fair to Haru - or anyone else in the house for that matter.

With a sigh, she flung the blanket from herself and shuffled over to the small four-poster bed. She crawled into the bed and embraced the screaming girl. "There, there," she whispered. "It's me, Miss Kaoru, and I won't let him hurt you." She shushed the fitful girl and tolerated the feeling of biting nails digging through the silken fabric of her yukata into her back. The screams were softening, if only slowly.

Kaoru decided to hum something to the girl. Not her mother's song, that was only for herself, but she gotten good at coming up with wordless little lullabies off the top of her head for all the girls.

Eventually, the screams calmed.

Kaoru looked to the shoji leading to the courtyard. It was dark but she could see the spring dew forming on the wood. The sun would be rising soon. Of course, now she was going to have a late start this morning.

* * *

The factory was much more solemn than usual. Kaoru watched the women as they worked diligently, every so often she'd catch sight of one of the triplets pretending to be some sort of shift supervisor. Thankfully, the women took it in good humour, though that was mostly due to Lady Oda telling them that they were too young to criticize someone's work. So really, they were a free means of moral boosts and some extra sets of eyes for the actual supervisors.

She wished to honestly be down there with them, but Lady Oda wanted the impression put out to the public that she was never without her adolescent bodyguard. Lady Oda had believed Kaoru when she said that her daughters were in no danger from Beaumont's murder, but she never adopted the conception that the motives were purely for revenge's sake.

"They're not at ease because the French Military Mission are coming here," Lady Oda pointed out as she signed her name to an order slip.

"You'd think they'd be more appreciative," Kaoru sighed. "You were able to re-open this factory because of trading with the French."

"True, but being grateful to some French entrepreneurs does not equate to liking the Mission. I have no qualms with the French, they supported Lord Tokugawa, treated my late husband with great honour, and offered me the chance to live the way I do now after the war was lost, but rarely is one so blessed.

"You have to remember that the Mission also supports this new law of conscription. Now, many young husbands and sons are being taken away with no reference to an honourable enemy to fight. The Bakumatsu was tragic, but that was a fight the warriors chose; this new army the government is building," Lady Oda paused as she continued to fill out her paperwork. "I can't see any honour in it."

Kaoru scoffed, "No honour in it? The country is still in chaos. It may not be hitokiri assassinating people, but just two days ago, remember when our carriage passed by that man trying to stab someone with an European wine bottle?"

Lady Oda gave Kaoru a glance of annoyance. "How could I not? You jumped out of the carriage and injured the man by jabbing his wrist with the hilt of your katana. I was sent his hospital bill, by the way, today."

Kaoru's cheeks turned a little blue knowing that Lady Oda was probably going to find extra work for her to 'make up for the expense'. Still, she wasn't deterred from the debate. "The point is, the man admitted that all the other guy had done was cheat in dice."

"And you really think having a centralized army will fix this problem? Armies are for fighting rebels and other countries: not uncivilized rabble."

"If all men between the ages of seventeen and forty are required three years of martial service-"

"The thugs will become emboldened as they've now been given three years of free room and board along with occupational training in how to kill someone."

Kaoru gritted her teeth at being interrupted. "They'll receive discipline and training that will allot many in with qualifications to be police officers!"

"So what I said but with authority complexes, now?"

"Do you really have so little faith in the idea that many may want to do good with their martial skills?

"You never did tell me how many students had come to learn the great 'sword that protects life' style."

Kaoru slammed her fist on the wall below the window sill hard enough to make the whole suspended office shake. Many workers had momentarily frozen in their line to take note of the noise. Lady Oda even deemed the outburst worth looking up from her paperwork, though her expression was more annoyed than shocked or disturbed. She closed her eyes and sighed, "Your childish tantrums aren't helping your case, but my last comment was uncalled for. I apologise."

Kaoru huffed her breath and leaned back into her chair to look back out the window to the factory floor. Most of the women had returned back to work, and the pen-scratching of Lady Oda working continued. When a day starts poorly, it's bound to stay that way.

When the Mission finally did arrived, it was noticeable. They barged into the factory so loudly that, if not for their ethnicity, Kaoru may have mistaken them for part of another anti-foreigner riot. It was obvious that none of the officers with actual rank were among them. Kaoru couldn't help but smirk, "It looks like the Mission didn't deem you worthy of sending anybody worth anything to talk to you."

Lady Oda was looking out the window herself now. Calm as ever, but after having to spent nearly all of her waking hours with her, Kaoru learned to pick up on all of her little ticks. She was lightly drumming the pads of her fingertips: worried.

Kaoru stood up and went to the door, steeling her own nerves. "I'll go intercept them because they scare the employees too much." She paused for a moment, considering the proper words to greet them with. When she had them, she opened the door and descended the stairs.

"Messieurs, Madame Oda vous attend ici," Kaoru called down to them in greeting and directing them to come to the office. She could already tell that she wasn't going to like them. They were here on orders to simply go through the employee roster in search of any men trying to avoid conscription. There weren't, but no one was going to merely take Lady Oda's word for it.

Part of Kaoru wanted to feel sad for the men as they were being used to fill short-handed ranks in a country that was not their own, but they lost her pity with the harassing way they leered over the workers on the line.

At least hearing their native language had caught their attention. They addressed her back and Kaoru was able to brokenly understand that they were, at least, trying to be polite. As they ascended the stairs, Kaoru took note only one carried a sabre but all carried handguns. Such overkill for one factory, they must've expected being assaulted on the trip.

Lady Oda was already standing to greet them when she followed them back in; her demure mask a perfect fit. Sensing their unease, Kaoru made her way to stand next to Lady Oda. Friends faced you, enemies stood at your back.

This was certainly different from dealing with tradesmen and artisans. Usually these meetings had that fake air of causality: the bland anecdote and giggles about obvious cultural barriers. The Mission couldn't have cared less about such niceties - a little rude but one had to admire the efficiency. They took the reports, but Kaoru had been wrong in assuming that was their only reason for being here and it made their earlier gawkings make sense.

"A Chinese applicant from America, you say?" Lady Oda queried in French.

"Yes, ma'am. Our particular squad is hunting your army's draft-dodgers. One year ago, a Japanese national returned from America. He claimed to have come to take care of his family, and took on all legal accounts and assets of the household. When he learned that by once again nationalizing himself he was subject to conscription, he fled. Our research has us believing that he adopted his wife's name and that they've been seeking out employment here in Osaka."

"I have had no applicants with Chinese names, I'm afraid. What is the name? If I see it, I will let you know."

"Qin; Yoshirou and Jian-li Qin."

When the men took their leave, Lady Oda went through the stack of application files on her desk.

"You shouldn't have lied to them," Kaoru scolded, knowing what it was Lady Oda searched for. "Aiding deserters is a crime."

"What's a crime to a government that was built over the corpses of men like my husband breaking more families away from each other?" Lady Oda found the application she was looking for and sat down to write a letter. "You are to deliver this when the shift bell sounds in an hour."

This shocked Kaoru. "Me?" Lady Oda was never out in public without Kaoru to guard her. "What about protecting you and the girls?"

"No woman should ever have to face the possibility of her lover never returning to her. I'll even risk this former student of yours for that."

Kaoru's heart dropped, and she suddenly remembered there were things she and Lady Oda had in common - some things Lady Oda wasn't fully aware of.

* * *

She was being followed. There was no way around it. It was definitely more than one person. At first, Kaoru had thought is was the Mission, but whoever they were, they were much too sloppy in their movements to have been any kind of soldier. So, who then?

It was immensely frustrating as Kaoru had already circled her destination twice now, trying to lose them. She thought they would've caught on that she's noticed them by now and either have left or shown themselves - unless the letter wasn't their purpose.

Osaka wasn't the safest place in Japan for anyone, let alone a woman walking alone, but she was armed with a katana - an increasingly rare sight. Or, perhaps it was the fact that she was armed that was the draw. Had they noticed the wire tying the blade into the sheath?

There were too many variables, thus Kaoru finally decided to just end the shenanigans. She stopped into the middle of the street; a final warning to her pursuers to end this. A moment passed and soon another. Nothing. Really? They were really still going to play this lost game? Who would really still be trying?

It clicked.

Kaoru gritted her teeth. Lady Oda would blame her for this.

She turned around and slammed her foot to the ground. "Natsu! Aki! Haru! If you don't come out you're getting two hundred shomen when we get home."

Slowly and pitifully, the triplets fumbled from their hiding places, and filed in a little hunched-shouldered line before her.

"What are you three doing?" Kaoru berated. "Do you have any idea how frightened your mother is going to be when she notices you're gone?" If she hadn't already.

Aki spoke up. "We saw you leaving the factory; you've never left our family unprotected before, Teacher. We thought, well."

"You didn't have another fight with Mother that made you quit, did you?" Haru interjected.

Kaoru sighed. "So that's what this is all about. No, I didn't quit. Your mother just asked me to deliver a letter for her."

Natsu stuck her tongue out at her sisters. "See? I told you she'd never leave us!"

Kaoru shook her head. It was really hard to believe that they were only two years younger than her. She couldn't help but recall the saying about how the longer someone is treated like a child the longer they act like one. Then again, to hear Tae talk it was Kaoru that was the oddity.

She tapped her foot impatiently, trying to decide whether to run the girls back to their mother then deliver the letter or to deliver the letter before taking the girls home. The latter was settled upon as it would be much quicker; not to mention the girls may just follow her again.

"Alright you three, lets go." She saw their faces light up. "But all of you are getting fifty extra shomen with your exercises tonight for making your mother worry." None of them even winced at the idea. Kaoru knew she was going too easy on them but something in her stomach told her she would be a hypocrite to punish them worse.

Knowing that the longer she dallied the worse this whole excursion would be in Lady Oda's eyes, she ran to her destination as fast as she could without losing the triplets.

Missus Qin lived humbly, to put it kindly. A ramshackle hut in the Dotonbori theatre district with all the squalor of a former red light alley. Kaoru knocked.

There was some notable shuffling inside and Kaoru could only assume that Yoshirou must have been home. The door cracked and a tiny woman peeked through, her accent was thick but she enunciated well. "Hello? Can I help you?"

Kaoru handed her the letter. "Someone that cares wants you to read this."

The woman opened the door and cautiously accepted the letter. "Thank you, but I have no money to tip you with."

Kaoru smiled, "I'll get it from the sender." She turned to leave but something caught her eye. "Well, actually, my feet hurt. How about you tip me with a little rest?" There was no waiting for a response. Kaoru pushed the door open with her foot and shuffled the triplets inside the hut. Once the door was shut, the woman realised what Kaoru had done and started to object but Kaoru's question came first. "Do you have a back door?"

Aki was holding her nose as the inside of the home smelled of body odour and mildew. "Teacher, what's going on?"

"Is there a backdoor or not?" Kaoru insisted.

A male voice spoke up this time, "There is."

Kaoru sighed in relief and turned to the girls. "Okay, girls, you may leave out the back door."

Haru whimpered, "Are you not coming home?"

Kaoru patted her head. "Of course I am. It's probably nothing. I'm just being careful." The girls smiled. It was nice to be invincible in their eyes. Kaoru gave the girls a reassuring nod before turning to the couple. "I'm sorry, but I can't have my charges seen in front of your home when there's Mission around."

The Qins tensed at the name. The husband was twitching his hand in contemplation of reaching for something that could be used as a weapon. "Who are you?"

Natsu spoke up for Kaoru. "She's the bodyguard for the Oda family!" she boasted proudly.

Kaoru felt her own little swell of pride. "I'm Kamiya Kaoru, and I'm here because Lady Oda doesn't want you caught. They came to the factory asking about you."

Yoshirou's eyes were wide and there was a slight tremor in his voice. "Kamiya?"

Kaoru creased her brow. "Yeah? What about it?"

Yoshirou let out a breath and ran his palm over his face. "Sorry… it's a samurai name, right?"

"It is, again, what about it?"

The man shook his head. "It's nothing. The backdoor is behind the changing screen."

It obviously was not as he said, but Kaoru decided to let it go. Prying a deserter over a queer statement was very low on her list of priorities at the moment. As a protector to the triplets, Kaoru had to see them home, but she could not ignore the worried look on Jian-li's face nor the small boy hiding behind her skirt. "If you simply handed yourself over, this wouldn't be an issue," she stated to Yoshirou flatly.

Yoshirou clicked his teeth and set his jaw against the statement. "Doubtfully, it feels like no matter where I go I'm doomed to serve as a dog."

"We may not like our responsibilities but-"

"The only responsibilities I have are to my family! I owe nothing to this new government. Now, I've pointed out the back door to you. Please-"

A knock came to the door. It was as Kaoru suspected, the Mission was doing house checks. She turned to the triplets. "Girls, we're taking the Qins home with us."

"What!" Yoshirou objected.

"Would you rather be caught?"

Everyone felt uneasy, but no one could think of a good reason to object. Jian-li gathered her son up in her arms as another knock came to the door. The triplets scurried behind the screen and opened the back door.

A single kick came to the door. Thankfully, not enough to open it but it would not stand another. Kaoru removed her sheathed katana from her belt and stood in front of the screen. The second kick came after the Qins had made it behind the screen and were heading out the door.

Kaoru faced the two uniformed men as they stepped into the hut. She recognised one from the factory; the other was new.

They scoffed at the sight of a small teen-aged girl brandishing the sheathed weapon at them. Her French was still lackluster but she understood some of the words: stupid child, where, and Qin.

Kaoru figured it was better to pretend that she didn't understand anything. "Why are you in my house?" she hoped her subterfuge could resolve this.

"Vous êtes le garde du corps de Lady Oda," the familiar one growled. Kaoru understood that. She'd been recognised. The soldier began to draw his handgun; that was enough.

Kaoru charged with a forward thrust and made contact with the man's jugular. The other moved to react, but she was too fast for him. The iron sheath swiped sideways and collided with the his shoulder.

Kaoru ended her assault knowing that striking unnecessarily would accomplish nothing, but she knew well that simply running would not give the others enough time to have effectively escaped. "Give up!" she ordered them.

The first was choking for air and looked on the verge of passing out. The second was on his knees twisting and writhing in pain from his pain. They weren't threats.

Kaoru placed her sword back and her belt and knelt before the men. "I'll get you a doctor, now."

* * *

Tae blinked in utter shock as she saw the family in the estate door. The triplets had brought them home with neither Kaoru or their mother. "Girls? What is this?" she asked.

Natsu came up to address her as her sisters led the family inside. "They're people Mother sent Teacher to help but some nasty men showed up. We're protecting them now."

That explanation was not helpful. It only made Tae more anxious. "Natsu, where are your Mother and Miss Kaoru now?"

Natsu blinked at her as if she had asked a stupid question. "Mother's still at the factory. Teacher's beating up the bad guys."

Tae was afraid of that. Kaoru was no damsel to be certain, but she was still only a young girl with a sword she would never use. Nothing felt right about any of this. She decided to just put on a friendly face for the moment. "Well, we should get our guests some tea then."

The Qins were ushered to a sitting room with a shoji open to the courtyard. Tae sent a house servant out to tell Lady Oda what was going on, then brought out some hot oolong tea. She set the tray on the table and began pouring six cups.

"My name is Sekihara Tae," she introduced. "I am the head housekeeper and culinary tutor for Lady Oda's daughters. You've met Natsu, Aki, and Haru as well as the family's guardian and kenjutsu instructor Kamiya Kaoru."

Yoshirou started to bow from habit but stopped himself. "Qin Yoshirou, this is my wife, Jian-li, and son, Ping."

"A pleasure; welcome to our home. I hope you enjoy-"

"Could we, please, skip the pleasantries? Honestly, I don't know why we even came," Yoshirou brashly interjected.

"Jerk!" Natsu exclaimed. "Teacher is out fighting for you right now!"

"I never asked your 'Teacher' to do that."

Tae shushed the triplets in a kind and placating way before returning her attention but to Yoshirou. "I beg your pardon for Natsu, but I can understand where she is coming from. It is not within Miss Kaoru's nature to not help those she feels are distressed. It goes against everything she is."

"I do not see how that is my problem."

"Perhaps it isn't. I would just hope that you could appreciate the situation we are in. Miss Kaoru is like family to us, and nobody wishes to see family hurt - even if it is for doing the right thing."

Tae could tell that Yoshirou was about to spit her logic back in her face, but Jian-li placed a hand on her husband's shoulder. "We can," she said calmly, "and I apologise for the emotional distress my family has caused."

"No distress!" Natsu cheered, "Teacher's the best onna-bugeisha in Japan! Those guys are probably begging for mercy at her feet right now!"

Jian-li smiled at the enthusiasm. "That's reassuring. Tell me, is there anything we can do to repay your hospitality."

Aki spoke up, "What was Teacher talking about with turning yourself in? Are you criminals?"

"Aki!" Tae scolded, "That's very rude!"

Yoshirou sighed, "I'm a fugitive from conscription. I will not serve in an army for a government that has never been mine."

"Not yours?"

"I haven't lived in Japan since before the Bakumatsu. I only came back recently as I had received a letter saying that nearly all of my family here had been massacred. When I got here, everything was gone and the police had called off the investigation regarding the murder suspects due to insufficient evidence," he explained. "The only reason I stayed in Japan was because I had learned that one of my family members was saved. I went to the man that saved him, and he pointed me to Osaka.

"I'm not leaving Japan until I have found my missing family, but I am being demanded to serve in the military. The Americans are prejudice against any Asian; many die working the rails and we are taxed unfairly, but we still have my wife's family there, and we're very close to becoming naturalized as citizens. If I serve in the Japanese military, all that work would have been for nothing. The American government will not recognise a foreign soldier as a citizen."

"We just wish to find my husband's brother and take him home to America with us," Jian-li finished.

Aki tilted her head. "Why not bring your family from America here?"

"Life in America is harsh but there is structure. This Meiji government cannot even police its own people without foreign aid, and I would not wish such chaos on my wife's family."

Tae looked over the Qins with sympathetic eyes. This sort of intense military and governmental drama was more up Kaoru's alley than her own, but she could completely understand the Qins' point of view.

It reminded her of when Kaoru had first told her they would be staying to help Lady Oda. Tae remembered being furious with Kaoru. They had set out to find Toji and bring him home; not to get swept up in the economic despair of Osaka. It wasn't that she didn't sympathize with the workers' plight, she did, but staying to help would not help them and it wasn't their responsibility.

Kaoru had just smiled and said, "We don't live in voids unaffected by each other."

She was right. For two years they had lived with Lady Oda, and they had long passed even pretending to look for Toji. Still, thanks to the factory not closing many lives in Osaka had been improved. More work was flowing in and the city was quickly becoming Japan's industrial capital. She understood that just one factory did not do this, but it had set the precedent.

"Girls," Tae addressed, "Why don't you take little Ping and Jian-li into the courtyard to play."

Quiet little Haru understood and obeyed immediately. Natsu and Aki gave defiant looks but still silently caved.

When all the children were in the yard Tae dropped her fake smile and looked to Yoshirou. "Two years ago, I would've agreed with you completely. What's happening to you is unfair and should not be your responsibility. I know someone that faced a similar situation to yours; not circumstantially, but emotionally.

"She went against my advice and now she never smiles the way she used to. Before her smiles were always so joyful and genuine, but now her smiles are so sad that sometimes I want to yell at her for her decision.

"There's something that always stops me, however." Tae gestured out into the yard at the girls playing with the mother and child. "Because of her decision there are dozens of people that smile like that. She sacrificed her own happiness to make their lives better.

"I'm not saying it's fair. It isn't. Still, I know her now, and I know exactly what she would say if she were in your shoes.

"This land is violent and chaotic because too few people take on the responsibility to fix it. This is my responsibility: to think of their happiness first."

* * *

The cell was clean at least. Kaoru had always feared that prison cells smelled of urine, or worse. She wondered where they had put her sword. It wasn't that great; practicing within it in the sheath had loosen the guard and hilt from the excess weight; still, it was hers.

She had asked her jailor how the men were doing. Apparently, she had used the perfect amount of pressure on the first man's throat to subdue without injuring, and the second had a complete shoulder dislocation and possibly some fractures. She'd have to be more careful with her follow-up strikes than that.

It didn't make her feel any better that the Japanese policemen were having giggle fits over the two grown men being do badly beaten by a thirteen year old girl.

Kaoru was so lost in thought that she didn't even hear the click of her cell door. It was the loss of checkered shadows that made her look to the door. There stood Lady Oda, in all her refined and subdued rage. With her was a French officer that Kaoru did not recognise.

"I give you the simple task of delivering a letter, and you turn it into two assault charges." The words seethed with tendrils of anger that one may have mistaken for kenki.

Kaoru stood and patted the dust from her hakama. "I was told of their injuries, do you know if they're doing any better?"

The French officer smiled at that. "My men seemed to be a little too tongue-tied to explain how it was they got their injuries. Care to explain?"

Kaoru saw the badge indicating sergeant on his lapel, he was a Mission ranking officer. Kaoru knew it was best to be honest. "I was in the home of Qin Yoshirou. When the two soldiers came in, I asked them why they were there and one made a move for his gun. So, I jabbed him with the sheath of my katana in the throat. When the other tried to come at me, I struck him in the shoulder."

"Very honest about your assault, aren't you?" he chortled.

Kaoru winced at the line subconsciously. "Are they alright?"

"I've sent their hospital bill to Lady Oda." Oh great: Kaoru thought as she rolled her eyes. "Otherwise, they are on suspension."

Kaoru creased her brow. "Why?"

"We have permission from the Japanese government to take on specific errands regarding the deserters. We do not have permission to raid the homes of Japanese citizens looking for them," the officer explained. "Frankly, this whole incident is a bureaucratic nightmare on both sides, and considering that Mister Qin has come forward of his own accord… well, all parties involved would prefer a more closed door resolution here.

"Lady Oda has agreed to pay the hospital bills and Qin will begin his military training so long as we don't press charges. I think it's a small cost."

* * *

Upon arriving at the Oda home, Kaoru found herself being tackled by the triplets; all cheering and questioning about how the fight went. It was a little awkward with the officer, Sgt. Durant, still present, but he simply chuckled.

Tae had made dinner by that time. The Qins were still there. Apparently Lady Oda had offered for them to stay until Juan-li started work, but they had declined; they had agreed to stay for dinner though.

Honestly though, it was a little much for Kaoru. She liked little parties like this, but she rarely had the energy for them these days. So, she took the earliest excuse she could to go to bed.

Tae found her shortly later sitting up with two books in her lap.

"I thought you were going to bed," she teased.

Kaoru smiled, "Well, with all the noise."

"You could've come back out and joined us. Honestly, everyone's asking questions about you."

Kaoru crinkled her nose. "What sort of questions?"

"All sorts, really. Durant wants to ask you about samurai. The triplets want you to raise that little pedestal they've put you on. Mister Qin wants to know about Kamiya Kasshin Ryu."

"Why would Yoshirou want to know about that? Does he want to learn?"

"No, he just seems… curious. He acts like he knows you."

"I can honestly say, I never seen him before in my life."

"I thought as much." Tae went and sat on the bed next to her friend. She noticed that one of the books was the one that used to belong to Kaoru's mother. The other seemed to be a French to Japanese dictionary. "What are you doing?"

"Translating."

Tae creased her brow. "You can understand those bumps?"

"Not quite… in my notes in studying French culture I learned that France had developed this written language for the blind called Braille. It's this six-point grid used to make symbols using bumps. I been slowly learning the Braille alphabet, but the alphabet is a French one."

"I thought you hated learning French."

"I hate learning to speak in French; reading though, no one corrects you on the proper way to say a word in your head."

Tae giggled at the explanation. "So, have you been able to figure out what the book is about?"

"It's a book on hanakotoba."

"So, your mom must have really liked flowers."

"That makes sense."

"Why is that?"

"One of the only things I remember about my Mama is that she always smelled like jasmine. Now that I know that she was really into this stuff, I'd really like to know what she was trying to say with that smell."

"Jasmine? Oh, that's a common one. Everyone knows what jasmine flowers mean."

"Well, I don't and don't tell me either," Kaoru huffed. "I want to find out for myself. It'll feel more like a real message from my Mama that way."


	9. A Birthday Smile

Courteously Beta'd by: Scarred Sword Heart

Chapter 8

A Birthday Smile

* * *

Who's idea was this again? The three sisters cringed as they looked out into the murky pond. It was their best bet to find what they were looking for, but why did it have to be a frog? Kittens were cute, songbirds sounded pretty, but they were here to catch a frog.

It had all sounded good when they had talked it out originally; go and catch a frog for Teacher's birthday. Put it in a fish tank with some linen and leaves, and it would be the perfect birthday present. Looking at the algae filled water and considering what other slimy creatures were in it was a different story though, but they couldn't change their minds now - not after all the time and effort taken to convince their mother to let them come out here without Miss Kaoru to protect them.

Natsu stepped forward first, her fists white-knuckled the pole of the net she held. "Okay, I'll lean forward with the net and you two hold onto me so I don't fall in." Aki and Haru nodded nervously.

Natsu walked as close to the water as she dared, taking her geta sinking so deeply into the mud that it almost touched her bare foot as a sign. As her sisters held onto her by the waist, she leaned forward and skimmed the water's surface with her net.

"I'm not seeing any frogs there," Aki pointed out.

"You want to go further in and search for them?" Natsu jeered.

"You guys are going to scare them all away," Haru pointed out.

"Lean in more, Natsu!" Aki ordered.

"I'm leaning in as far as I can!" Natsu was swinging the net in a frantic attempt to catch anything when finally a heavy weight fell into the net. "I got one!" The girls pulled the net from the water only to come face to face with a large catfish.

The girls shrieked and threw the net back into the water causing a large splash as the fish jumped and flipped its way to freedom. Within sounds of the splash was also the surprised yell of a male voice.

"Oro!"

The girls froze as they thought they had been at the pond alone. They scanned their surroundings and noticed some tall reeds and grass rustle from close by where they had thrown the net.

The girls ran for their shinai and braced themselves for the worst monster of a man their minds could contrive. Their little hearts pounded so frantically that it seemed to consume the world.

What they got was a wet, little, red-headed hobo looking woefully down at his algae covered rice-balls.

"And they looked so good too," he sighed.

Haru was the first to lower her shinai. "Oh, um, sorry mister." She went to grab one of the towels they had brought for themselves.

The man offered a small, placating smile as he took the towel. "That is alright, but may this unworthy one suggest that if you are trying to fish, a calmer approach may be in order. That it would."

"We're not trying to catch fish," Aki corrected. "We're trying to catch a frog for Teacher's birthday." The redheaded man creased his brow at the idea, so Aki decided to continue. "We heard that she thinks they're cute and likes to listen to them sing."

His expression became much warmer. "This unworthy one understands. Still, catching frogs is a difficult task if one does not know how. Perhaps a simpler gift may be in order as it would seem you do not wish to get yourselves wet."

Natsu shook her head defiantly. "No way. It has to be a frog if we want her to smile again."

"Oro?"

Haru looked at her feet. "Teacher has a very pretty smile, but over the past couple of weeks she hasn't smiled once despite it being her fifteenth birthday tomorrow. We asked her best friend, and she told us that it's because Teacher was expecting to be with this one man that loved her very much now.

"We wanted to show Teacher we love her too, and her friend said one of the things he used to do for her was catch frogs."

The man wrung his hair out into the towel. His smile was warm and gentle, feeling very moved by the story. "Ah, this unworthy one understands; it seems some help is in order though. That it is."

Aki's eyes widened hopefully. "You know how to catch frogs?"

"This unworthy one admits that it is not a task done frequently, but this one's clothes are already wet - assisting would not be any trouble. That it would not." He laid the towel on the bank to dry in the sun and pulled out a string to tie his sleeves back.

* * *

Kaoru feigned a smile as Tae showed her an indigo material. It was lovely and Kaoru was appreciative of why she was here, but she'd much rather be at the Oda home practicing. Tae had insisted that if Kaoru swung that sword one more time her arms would fall off, though.

Tae recognised the fake smile and plopped the material on Kaoru's head, which made her giggle. "Hey!" The smile was a little more genuine now.

"That's better. We're out buying you a new kimono, so you better give me a real smile," Tae teased.

"Would you stop fussing over me. I'm fine," Kaoru reassured.

"I'll fuss over whatever I want. I'm not your student, remember - you can't tell me what to do," Tae giggled. "Seriously, when was the last time you wore a kimono. People are going to start thinking you're an old war veteran with your kenjutsu clothes and sour face."

Kaoru's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "And saying things like that is supposed to lose my sour face?"

"I'm just saying that you need to stop being so responsible and enjoy yourself for once. Just because your a kenjutsu warrior doesn't mean that you can't be a kenjutsu princess too."

Kaoru had to smile at the title. She leaned forward against the tops of her hands as they rested on her katana. She closed her eyes and let the words roll off her tongue. "Kenjutsu princess, huh? I like the sound of that."

"Now that's the spirit. Let's take the time to make you a look like a real kenjutsu princess." Tae looked over the materials again. Her eyes brightened when she saw the perfect material. "This one! Definitely this one."

Kaoru recognised the material as one of the newest fabrics off the factory line. Black silk painted with flowing oranges, yellows, and reds to create simple outlines of fiery, wild horses with embers and sparks wafting upward. Kaoru crinkled her nose at it. "Really?"

Tae blinked in surprise. "You don't like it?"

"It's pretty; just not something I would've picked for myself," she tried to console.

Tae smiled at this. "That's exactly why I picked it. It's you: femininely dangerous and wildly powerful. A gown for a kenjutsu princess that she wouldn't have picked for herself. Now come on, let's get your measurements."

Kaoru patiently waited and shifted her position as needed for the seamstress to properly measure her. She didn't want to admit it, but Tae had been right about making this girly little excursion today. She, honestly, could not remember the last time she had done something simply for the fun of it. It felt nice to just be a girl: not a teacher, not a bodyguard, and not some other heavyweight role. Just a girl getting measured for a pretty kimono.

She decided to try and savour it. It might be a while before she'd get to feel this way again.

* * *

Lady Oda sipped her tea pleasantly and listened to the silence of her home. Being a mother of three rambunctious girls and housing Kaoru and Tae had forced her to grow so accustomed to noise that the only time she came to notice it was when it was gone. It was almost a relief.

The girls had gotten quite skilled at kenjutsu under Kaoru's tutelage. So skilled that Lady Oda had to agree with Kaoru's assertion that, as long as they were together, the girls could handle themselves against any vagrant - however, for the sake of their humility, she would never tell them that.

When her hand-maiden came to tell her that she had an unscheduled guest, she was more than tempted to turn them away. She had gotten better with her paranoia regarding her own and her family's safety as Kaoru had been the last uninvited guest she had taken into the home, but over the year she had promised herself that she would be better in regards to her trust issues.

So, the stranger was met at the gate. The man did strike her as familiar but Lady Oda could not place how so. He was stocky and wide yet not fat at all, with a balding head that he had the good enough graces to not attempt to hide. His garb was of an expensive sort of drab colouring; the sort of clothes she frequently saw on men still clinging to their bushi wealth that probably never had any real prestige.

His most noticeable aspect came when he spoke, however. His jaw laboured with unnatural care in his attempts to annunciate making his jawbone crack unpleasantly and forcing it to jut from side to side to give definition to his words. Half the time, she swore he had a lisp, and the rest of the time his voice croaked within the hollows of his cheeks.

"Greetings, Lady Oda Ai," he nearly inaudibly stated. "We have never been formally introduced, but I am a former associate of Mister Beaumont's. Many years ago, we worked together in a small venture of mutual benefit. I had always hoped to contact him again for future ventures, but I had heard of the tragic happenings regarding him and, to be frank, worried for my own safety." The man bowed his head slightly. "You have my condolences and apologies for my tardiness in giving them, by the way."

"That is all right. I understand having such reservations. It is something, I admit, still frightens me, but my family has acquired the service of a rather helpful kenjutsu expert in protecting us." Lady Oda returned his polite bow with one of her own. "I'm afraid I am at a disadvantage, sir. I do not know your name."

"Tachibana. Tachibana Rinji."

"Mister Tachibana, it is a pleasure. I can only assume you are here due to your wish to discuss the ventures you had in mind for Mister Beaumont with me now."

Tachibana smiled a disgusting smile. "Exactly. May I come in?"

Lady Oda resisted the impulse to cringe at the idea. "To be honest, you have caught me at a bad time." 'I will let no stranger into my home without Kaoru's protection,' she thought. "Perhaps I can schedule a meeting in two days time." Lady Oda had been in agreement with Tae to not work Kaoru today or tomorrow.

"I promise you that I will not be long. I am simply expanding one of my business operations out of Kyoto to Osaka. With all the violence of the old revolution and the conscription of many young men into the army, many young women are left little allowance for the chance to enter into a stable home. I have taken notice that many poor, young women have even been forced into homelessness. You are one of the few employers in Japan that works to hire women, but you have to be smart with your business. You cannot hire more workers than you need."

"I am glad that someone else is so concerned with the issue, but I fail to see where my aid is needed. If you are expanding here in Osaka, I am sure many happy women will come to your establishment seeking employment."

"You'd be surprised how wrong you are in that. I have been attempting to open my establishment for a couple of months now, but my applicants are scarce and I have been having other issues regarding social activism."

A chill ran up Lady Oda's spine. "Strange, what sort of business is this?"

"It is a simple boarding house for training young women in various entertainment arts: music, dance, calligraphy, tea ceremony-"

"Mister Tachibana," Lady Oda's voice was calm and demure, but she did not bother to hide her frown. "It sounds like a house for geisha."

"Geisha was once a fine and noble occupation," Tachibana explained.

"Once, and only when the geisha were truly treated as artists and not expected to sell their bodies under the table." He was about to interject but she didn't let him. "Why come to me in bolstering your brothel, Mister Tachibana?"

Tachibana took a deep breath to restrain his own rage, but the vein in his forehead was clearly visible. "I had hoped you would've been willing to help the young women that your bottom line would not allow you to hire by turning their contact information over to me. I had also believed the you had Beaumont's business sense; I was apparently wrong."

"I have a hard time believing that Mister Beaumont stooped to associating with you," Lady Oda stated coldly. "Now, if you would please leave."

Tachibana did leave - a quiet storm building in his aura.

It was when her estate was safely locked that Lady Oda dropped her mask and held herself to stave off her fearful chills. She had not lived nearly four years with Kaoru and Tae to have not heard that name: Tachibana.

The old horrors of Beaumont's death felt fresh again, and she could once again clearly see the killer's eyes staring back at his handiwork, full of rage. She could hear her sweet Haru's screams as Beaumont's disemboweled body lay collapsed upon the girl's tiny little body.

Spikes of fear drove into her heart as she suddenly worried for her daughters' safety. She felt so pathetic as she wished Kaoru, a girl not even fifteen yet, were home to protect her family.

She collapsed to her knees and wept.

She was not allowed long with her tears. Bubbly laughter from three young girls vaulted over the wall around the estate, and Lady Oda's heart leapt with joy. Her sweet girls, they were safe.

Lady Oda quickly stood; wiping the tears from her face and the dust from the knees of her kimono. She trotted over to the gate and opened it for them. "My sweet girls! I'm so glad you are-"

A redheaded hobo in a tattered dark blue gi smiled pleasantly at her.

She had no words. The man was filthy, wet with muck, and - with that cross-shaped scar on his left cheek and sword at his hip - did not look particularly safe. Yet, his smile was so gentle and disarming… not to mention he looked silly holding a tiny green frog in his hands.

"Mother, this is Mister Himura!" Aki explained.

"He helped us catch Teacher's birthday present," Natsu further elaborated.

Lady Oda finally blinked the shock out of her eyes and clumsily put her social mask back on. "Oh! Mister Himura, um, thank you for helping my daughters."

The hobo nodded. "They are sweet girls. That they are. It was this unworthy one's pleasure to assist."

Haru stepped before her mother and bowed respectfully. "Mother, we accidentally ruined Mister Himura's meal, and he waded through the pond for us. Could we let him use our bath house to wash up and have him join us for dinner?"

Lady Oda shook her head. "Haru, you know how I feel about strangers in the house without-"

"Mister Himura's really nice though, Mother!" Natsu whined.

"I can run out and bring Teacher back home, if you're worried. Nobody can beat Teacher in a fight so she'll keep Mister Himura in line," Aki offered. "That way you don't have to worry about the family being safe."

The hobo's eyes widened sadly. "This unworthy one does not need such generosity, but is it really so dangerous in Osaka?"

"Mother runs the silk weaving factory," Aki explained looking at her feet. "The old owner was killed in front of us, but that's when Teacher came. She was really sad, saying that she was looking for a student whose family had been killed. She'd worried that he's seeking the wrong kind of revenge, but we were so scared that she stopped to protect us until we could defend ourselves."

"Since then, Teacher's kept us safe and has been teaching us kenjutsu," Natsu finished. She turned to her mother. "But Mother still worries about the killer."

With the little scraps of information he now knew - plus witnessing the subtle expression changes and reactions of Lady Oda - Himura was able to piece together the parts of the story that the girls did not know but their mother did.

A truly complicated situation, but he felt that he had a grasp for truly what weighed this 'Teacher's' heart: guilt. And, he could offer no advice for how to alleviate the pain. He had spent roughly eight years wandering trying to figure that out for himself.

He put his hand up placatingly. "Truly, this unworthy one does not wish to impose. Perhaps, this one may fetch this 'Teacher'?"

Lady Oda looked over Himura. She came to a decision. "No, I promised to allow her the time off to enjoy herself. I will not spoil her time with needless worry. If you are willing to abide by the kenjutsu rules of this house, then you may stay long enough to freshen yourself up and fill your stomach."

Himura bowed. "You and your daughters are most kind, Lady Oda. May this unworthy one ask what the kenjutsu rules of the house are?"

Aki happily pointed to his sword. "You have to tie your sword into your sheath like Teacher."

Himura smiled. The more he heard, the more he liked this 'Teacher' of theirs.

* * *

Kaoru sighed as she waited at the edge of the food market for Tae. The woman had insisted that Kaoru not see the ingredients that were being bought for tomorrow. Kaoru sighed in silent admission that seeing the ingredients would not give her a single inclination as to what they were making for her. She lightly knocked the base of her palm to her brow; trying to tell herself that she lived in a house full of cooks. Kaoru had a sword as opposed to a spatula; she didn't need to know how to cook.

To pass the time she decided to admire the flowers an older woman was trying to keep alive by her little shop. They were red spider lilies. Kaoru took a minute to recall their meaning in accordance with her mother's book only to frown when it came to her: to be abandoned, lose a memory, or never see someone again. What a depressing flower - definitely not something to focus on when Tae was working so hard to make her happy.

So, Kaoru's eyes moved to watch the crowd. People watching was not a hobby that she usually indulged in, but Kaoru could easily understand its appeal when in such a happy area as the food market.

Everything good about Osaka seemed to be there: laughing children, giggling housewives, sweet older couples, and a burly man humming with a very lyrical voice.

Lyrical voice?

Kaoru did a double-take and her eyes widened in pure astonishment. He was a bit of a distance away, but there was no doubt about it. Kaoru would never forget that face for as long as she lived.

Kaoru pushed through the crowd until she caught up with him in a residential area well outside the market.

"Aruto!" she called clutching the top of her sheath as it sat at her belt.

The burly man stopped with a wince and turned at the sound of his name. "My, my," his low voice nearly purred, "I'd almost forgotten that intrepid, little voice." In finishing his turn, Kaoru took notice of his arms folding over his chest. A common ploy for putting your hand close to your sword hilt without raising hostile flags. "Could that really be you, little girl?"

Kaoru slid her sheathed katana from her belt, now taking note of the large scroll sticking out of his pocket. "I'm not so little. What are you doing in Osaka?"

He grinned. "How rude? Can't a man enjoy the sights of a city without being accosted?" Kaoru assumed a defensive fighting stance. This only made him chortle. "I suppose, given our relationship, you won't accept my dodgings of your questions. If it makes you feel any better, I was simply heading to the red-light district. My master had assumed you to be still crying over your misery in Tokyo.

"That fiance of yours gave him quite the scare; Yuuta made it no secret to Tachibana during his takeover of Tokyo that your sweetheart was the one to do Beaumont in. Honestly, if the master didn't pay so well, I'd have left him cowering in Kyoto long ago."

Kaoru's grip tightened. The behemoth still worked for Tachibana. "Is Tachibana here? Is he in Osaka?"

"Why? Is the woman going to try to finish what the child started?"

Kaoru winced at that. Frequently, she had considered what she would do to the monstrous man that had turned her peaceful life upside down; never had killing him been considered an expectable result. "Is he in Osaka?"

"Demanding, aren't you?" His smile turned malevolent. "I wonder, how would the master like to see you? As a head severed from the body or as a broken strumpet in his bordello?"

Kaoru's temper flared. She bit the bait and charged.

He was not as slow as she remembered. If she had been on the outside looking in on the fight, she would've kicked herself. She had seen him prepare himself for a fight and hindsight told her that he was obviously taunting an attack out of her, but as the tiny palm dagger came down on the soft tissue between the side of her neck and shoulder, the only thing her mind registered was the stabbing pain.

She had been pricked and cut by a blade before, but mostly in clumsy accidents while caring for the blade. Never had she felt the pain of being stabbed. It was truly excruciating, but Aruto gave her no quarter to attempt at recovery. His second fist rounded about in a second attack and caught her right in the solar plexus. Thankfully, that fist was empty; leaving Kaoru now merely with the sudden shock of no air to add to the pain, not a second wound.

Her mind felt so lost in these sensations that she did not register Aruto taking her sword away and picking her up by her waist.

Some meters away, though, a scared brunette was holding a bag filled with all the ingredients to make yatsuhashi close to her chest. She fully grasped the severity of the situation. "Kaoru…"

* * *

Himura admired his reflection in the koi pond. He almost didn't recognise himself. His hosts had declared his old clothes completely ill-fit and thrown them out during his bath. It was true that he had owned those clothes since back in the Bakumatsu, so they were quite worn, but throwing them out without telling him seemed a little excessive.

In their stead, he was given a set of white hakama with a matching juban along with a rosey red men's kimono. Apparently, leftover clothes from the late Sir Oda's youth. He would've objected more to them, but they had already thrown out his old clothes.

Despite that, he did feel much better as he was sure it had probably been a month since he had a proper bath. He smiled at Lady Oda as she approached him. "You have been more than generous to this unworthy one."

"Please save your thanks for my daughters, Mister Himura. I do not mean any offense, but I only agreed to this at their behest," she stated cooly.

"This one understands and is not offended," Himura closed his eyes in his smile as he turned to face her. "Trust is a precious thing and should not be given over something as trivial as catching a frog. That it should not."

"You are quite gracious."

"Should this one not be?"

"Mister Himura!" Aki called as the girls ran into the courtyard. Haru was carrying a wooden box bound in a cloth napkin. "We made you monjayaki!"

"Ah, thank you very much!" Himura said joyfully, taking the box. "How does our new little friend's home look?"

Each girl made their own face, but whether a crinkled nose, a furrowed brow, or an exposed tongue, the expression was indicative of the same emotion: disgust.

"It looks gross!" Natsu complained.

"That's because frogs are gross," Aki added.

"Hmm, would you mind letting this unworthy one take a look?" Himura asked, bending slightly down to be at eye-level with the girls.

The girls cheered in unison, "Sure!" and ran off to fetch the fishbowl.

Lady Oda smiled watching her girls go. "She's actually only two years older than they are."

Himura blinked at her in surprise. "Their teacher?"

"She was only eleven years old when she first came here; completely insistent on paying penance for that killer's actions," Lady Oda explained. Her dark eyes were withdrawn far back into memory. "I was so disgusted by it. A child like that out in this dangerous world. Her father still lives, you know, yet he allowed his daughter to shoulder such burdens by herself. Part of me wanted to drag her back home and slap him across the face, but she has such a stubborn temperament.

"So, I convinced myself to let her and a little friend she was traveling with stay until that foolish notion was dropped. Just educate them and give them some menial jobs for a couple of weeks, but now it's been nearly four years and I can't imagine how I ever considered this family safe without her."

Himura heard the faint tremor in Lady Oda's voice. He had gotten used to the feeling of strangers opening up to him; going out of your way to be non-abrasive did that. This was not the sort of personal discussion that occurred simply because his company was chatty, however. Something had happened today, and now the woman was scared. Scared and desperately unsure of where to turn for help.

When her social mask turned a little braver, he knew that the girls had returned. The 'fishbowl' was actually quite large and required all the girls to carry it. Pebbles lined the bottom with two big rocks for the little critter to sit on as well as some bamboo for decoration. It was at this point that Kenshin realised the little guy must've been a tree frog as his suction-cup toes had him adhered to the glass of the bowl just above his little rocky pond. The four cicadas that had been caught for him to eat had already been reduced to three.

Himura gave the girls his friendliest smile. "It's not so bad, perhaps a little plain though." Himura looked around the courtyard for a second before his eyes settled on the koi pond. "How about this?" He reached down into the water and plucked out one of the decorative lotus blossoms. Deftly, he then slid the flower into the bowl's water and resealed the linen cover before either pet or food could escape. "That's much better. That it is."

The girls nodded in agreement. "Thank you, Mister Himura!" they announced before going to return the present to its sunny display space.

Himura tucked all on his belongings away in a small travelling satchel. "You know, the reason this unworthy one came to Osaka was because there had been some unsavoury rumours regarding someone hiring many swordsmen. It is certainly many more than what would be needed for simple protection. That it is.

"This one has no love for violence and would hate to see more women in this home mistake being an adult with being altruistic in dealing with their pain."

* * *

Kaoru had never quite lost her sense of awareness. She knew she was close to the Qin's old home in the slums of the theatre district: south, most likely. She could find her way back to Lady Oda's easily. It had been the ghastly level of pain from being stabbed that had stayed her wrath until after being dragged into the brothel and thrown into what she could only guess to be some communal kimono closest.

Might as well gift wrap yourself into something nice: he had told her. The rest had been muffled by the closed door and pumping blood in her ears. It had been something about either leaving a pretty corpse or preparing for a new line of work. The order it had been said in was more disturbing than the words themselves, so Kaoru chose to believe it had truly been a listing of possible fates as opposed to a single summary.

A silk obi made for an awful gause substitute, but Kaoru had to work with what she had.

She checked the door. It wasn't a shoji, but a solid hit would easily knock it from its hinges. It wasn't even really locked; merely barricaded with a heavy floor trunk. Rather Aruto had underestimated her due to her size, gender, injury, or a combination of all, Kaoru was thankful for it. She just hoped he had not gone far with her katana.

With a deep breath and a two-step running start, Kaoru threw her uninjured shoulder into the door. The door did not break to the hit, but she had easily used enough force to push the trunk out enough to allow for her exit.

What she exited out to was the second floor walkway of the unopened brothel. From the first floor, three unscrupulous men, that had been swilling sake straight from a ceramic jar, stared up at her with no small amount of disbelief. One was holding her katana.

"Give me back my sword!" she demanded.

The men only smiled lewdly at her as one shrugged, "Or else what, little girl?"

With her good arm, Kaoru picked up the trunk that had been used to barricade her and flung it down into one of the men: knocking him both into the wall and out cold. Kaoru did not wait for them to react to her. She jumped down and drop-kicked the man closest to her. Her geta planted firmly into his face as the sake jar flew from his hand out the front door. The expression he wore on the floor was that of a man seeing stars.

The man left was the man holding Kaoru's katana. Good, one man with a blade was easier to fight than three potentially armed men.

"Bitch!" he shrieked moving to draw her katana blade from its sheath; or, at least he tried to. Either the excitement had made him forget, or he simply hadn't noticed in the first place, but Kaoru had wire-tied the blade into the sheath. His eyes widened in terror as he went to work undoing the tie.

Crack!

Kaoru blinked in surprise as the pieces of the sake bottle fell with the man to the floor. Tae stood behind the collapsed body trembling like a leaf. Her eyes were watery and after getting a good long look at her friend, Tae blinked the water past her leashes and yelled, "Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

Kaoru slowly smiled, and soon that smile broadened to a laugh.

"Don't laugh at me, Kaoru!" Tae scolded. "I thought… I thought…" The older girl ran up and hugged her younger friend. She didn't say anything else, just cried.

It took all of Kaoru's willpower to not wince from the fresh pain in her shoulder caused by Tae's embrace. She hugged her friend back but kept smiling, "Sorry."

Tae quickly calmed herself as she released Kaoru and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Its okay." Tae walked over and grabbed Kaoru's katana from the floor. "Let's just get you to a doctor."

"Could we do one other thing first?"

* * *

Tachibana had not felt so good in years. His meeting with Lady Oda did not go as smoothly as he had expected, but he had returned home to find eleven freshly hired swords to add to his growing band; many claiming to be former hitokiri. This made his little private army about twenty-six now including Aruto.

And Aruto. When he had showed up telling him of whom he had captured, Tachibana could've kissed the burly man. He had planned to let the little Kamiya brat stew in her own depression after killing off the Masumoto family; to let her think she was safe. Especially after that police investigation her father's testimony had called on his head.

To find that she had chased her betrothed's tracks to Osaka, though, only to have found her without the protection of her father was like Heaven itself was blessing his revenge. He had left Aruto in charge of the new estate while he and ten of his most ruthless men went to pay the little bitch a visit.

As his men conversed amongst themselves, he tossed what he was going to do to Kaoru over and over in his mind. Normally, he'd leave gruesome details to his men as most ideas of torture reminded him too much of his own ordeal. It was to the point where he couldn't even stand the sight of the colour red, but when it came to the name of Kamiya Kaoru red was all he could see; a little more wasn't going to make a difference.

When his establishment came into view, Tachibana would've smiled proudly at his next soon-to-be accomplishment. That joy was put down when he noticed a broken window… no, all the windows were broken.

He broke into a run and found that appalled was a word that fell short of how he felt. His establishment had been completely trashed. He stepped over broken bottles that were shattered over the floor, cushions and pillows that had been torn open, and the hearth smothered from the ashy remains of expensive curtains and fabrics. The three men Aruto had left to guard the building were tied to the stairwell posters with geisha make-up haphazardly smeared over their faces.

The cost in damages probably equalled half the cost of buying and renovating the building in the beginning.

Placed, almost thoughtfully, on the welcoming desk was a letter simply reading: The women of Osaka are not yours to sell, Tachibana.

He would've screamed in fury, but his thoughts were interrupted by one of his swordsmen. "Boss, there's someone else here." Tachibana turned to see a small skinny swordsman standing in the entrance.

"This one would like to speak with you about leaving Lady Oda alone."

This man obviously did not know whom he was dealing with. He was probably this bodyguard he heard she had. It didn't matter what happened. He had the best of his little army with him, and Tachibana would never be a man that forever let an insult go. He sized the man up before giving his order.

Red: he hated the colour red.

* * *

Kaoru admired herself in the mirror in her new kimono. Being the bodyguard to the factory owner of the material had kicked the seamstress into high gear. Despite the sling the doctor had stuck her arm in to keep her from moving her shoulder, she really looked sexy. It made her feel a little giddy. She had felt pretty before but never sexy.

Since, yesterday the family waited on her hand and foot, as well. It was a refreshing change of pace that Kaoru found she could easily get used to.

"Happy birthday, Teacher," Haru stated from the door in a small voice.

Kaoru turned to look at the girl and smiled. "Thank you, Haru."

Aki and Natsu nudged their sister aside as they carried in some spherical object covered in a sheet. They placed it on a bright spot by the window.

"Are you feeling better, Teacher?" Aki asked, a little worried.

Kaoru nodded.

Natsu pouted, "You need to feel better soon so that you can teach us to protect you like you protect us."

Kaoru laughed a little. She was happy to see that seeing her injured had not shattered their opinion of her. "I'll keep that in mind. So, what's that?"

"Your birthday present!" Aki cheered as she pulled away the covering linen to reveal the fishbowl underneath.

Kaoru let out a small, endeared cry of joy. The little tree frog inside was quite possibly the cutest creature she'd ever seen. She walked over to the bowl and knelt down to get a better look at the little guy clinging to a stick of bamboo. "Oh! He's adorable! Did you girls catch him yourselves?" she asked.

All the girls simultaneously shook their heads. "No, we had help from Mister Himura," Aki explained.

Kaoru's brow creased at the name. "Mister Himura? Who's that?"

"He's the nice man that helped us catch the frog. He also picked the lotus to make the bowl prettier," Haru explained.

"He was really handsome," Aki blushed, "Even Mother talked with him a lot."

Not really helpful answers but Kaoru just shrugged. If Lady Oda, of all people, trusted him enough to let him around the girls while she was away, then he must've just been an old friend of hers from before she came. It was good that Lady Oda was starting to reach back out to old male friends.

She looked over the bowl again. When her eyes came to rest on the lotus, she couldn't help but giggle. This Mister Himura obviously didn't know his hanakotoba. Most everyone knew that a lotus flower meant purity and chastity, but that only applied to the person that picked or grew them. Men tended to forget that giving a lotus flower was saying: I'm sorry to leave, but I still care for you deeply.


End file.
